Coins, Historical Medals & Paper Money

The Architectural Association, a silver award medal by J.S. & A.B. Wyon, floral arrangement around central monogram, back named (Presented to J.R. Stark, 1895), 55mm (cf. Baldwin 98, 2594). Extremely fine £80-100

Provenance: M. Longfield Collection.

James Robert Stark (1870-1959), b. Poplar, son of Scottish house carpenter William Stark and his wife Sarah. In 1887 he was articled to the architect John Thomas Bressey and from 1891 to 1895 while working as an assistant to Bressey in London he studied at the Architectural Association where he was awarded at least two medals, including this one. In 1895 he joined the London County Council to work in the ‘Housing for the Working Classes’ Division, designing the social architecture of LCC tenement blocks and early cottage estates. He was recommended as a candidate for licentiate membership of the RIBA in 1911 by Leonard Stokes, W.E. Riley and Halsey Ricardo, and remained with the LCC up to his retirement in 1934