Auction Catalogue

2 & 3 April 2014

Starting at 10:00 AM

.

Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens, Jetons, Medals and Books

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 973

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3 April 2014

Hammer Price:
£600

Medals, Anti-Slavery, Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807, a silver medal by T. Webb, bust of William Wilberforce right, rev. Britannia with Victory and other allegorical figures on plinth, 53mm (BHM 627; E 983; Roehrs 1692). Almost extremely fine, light tone £400-600

Provenance: Bt P. Bosco.

William Wilberforce, from Kingston-upon-Hull, was the town’s MP from 1784-1812. From 1787, with Thomas Clarkson and others, he became an anti-slave-trade activist, taking the campaign to Parliament. The Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807. In 1808 Peter Rouw exhibited a wax portrait of William Wilberforce at the Royal Academy, ‘intended for a medal in commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade’ (BDM VIII, 179; Gunnis 332)