Ancient, British and World Coins, Token, Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books and Banknotes

Railways, Jubilee of the South Eastern Railway, 1886, an oval gold medal, crowned bust of Queen Victoria left, rev. arms and supporters above tablets, named (Myles Fenton, Director), 42 x 31mm. Extremely fine and very rare; with clip and ring for suspension (£200-300)

Obverse only illustrated. Sir Myles Fenton (1830-1918), born in Kendal, commenced his lengthy career in the railway industry as a teenager with the Kendal & Windermere Railway in 1845. He subsequently held positions with the East Lancashire, Great Eastern, London & South Western, Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railways before being appointed secretary of the East Lancashire Railway in 1856 and later assistant manager of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway. In 1863 he was appointed general manager of the Metropolitan Railway in London, the world’s first underground railway, advancing to the post of general manager of the South Eastern Railway in 1880; in 1896 he became consulting director to the South Eastern & Chatham Railway, a position he held until his death in March 1918 at his home, Redstone Hall, Redhill, Surrey. Sold with a colour image of the Spy cartoon of Fenton, ‘A Railway Knight’, executed in 1890 and originally published in Vanity Fair. A Folkestone-related gold medal of 1886, to the same recipient, was sold in these rooms on 14 December 2004, lot 1221

Provenance: C.F. Dendy Marshall Collection, Sotheby Auction, 13 November 1945, lot 338 (part), Capt E.W. Swan Collection, Glendining Auction, 17 April 1986, lot 141, W.J. Noble Collection, Part II, Noble Numismatics Pty Auction 61B (Melbourne), 3-4 August 1999, lot 1108