Indian Historical Medals from the Collection formed by Michael Shaw

Societies, The Photographic Society of India, a silver award medal by J.S. and A.B. Wyon, semi-naked Indian female seated left, arches of building behind, rev. wreath, named (Exhibition 1889-90, Class I, Section II (Amateur), Awarded to J.G. Apcar), 51mm, 78.80g (Pudd. I, 948.27.3; cf. DNW 55, 1668). Brightly polished, otherwise about very fine; an early award £120-£150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Indian Historical Medals from the Collection formed by Michael Shaw.

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Provenance: DNW Auction 86, 16-17 June 2010, lot 248.

The Hon. John Gregory Apcar (1849-1923), descended from a prominent Armenian family in India with major interests in shipping, was the great-nephew of Arratoon Apcar (1779-1863), who migrated from Iran to Bombay in 1815 and subsequently removed to Calcutta in 1830. Known colloquially as ‘Father John’, he was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, called to the Bar in 1871 and appointed Clerk of the Crown at the Calcutta High Court in 1874, a post he still held in 1895. He was a correspondent of The Times in London and is mentioned in this regard in With the Zhob Field Force 1890, by Capt. Crawford McFall, KOYLI (New York, 1895). In 1899 he was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council, of which he was still a member in December 1913, and he is listed on the passenger manifest of the Lusitania when she sailed into New York in December 1914