REVIEW: HIGHLIGHTS OF 2022

As we enter an exciting new auction season, we are delighted to recall some of the major highlights among the coins, medals, jewellery and other sales from 2022.

With significant royal connections, world auction records and unique archaeological finds, it proved to be a highly successful year as the company launched the Noonans brand.

Auction records – Noonans established a world auction record for a Victoria Cross on 14 September with the famous Indian Mutiny ‘Siege of Lucknow’ Victoria Cross awarded to Irishman Thomas Henry Kavanagh, which sold for £930,000. The estimate was £300,000-400,000.
Kavanagh, who was born on July 15, 1821 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, was employed as a clerk in the Lucknow Office prior to the Siege. In November 1857, he volunteered to leave the safety of the Residency disguised as a Sepoy (an Indian soldier serving under British or other European orders), accompanied by a Brahmin scout.  The pair jostled past armed rebels through the narrow Lucknow streets and talked their way past sentries in the moonlight, crossed deep rivers, tramped through swamps and narrowly avoided capture after startling a farmer who raised the alarm.  On finally reaching a British cavalry outpost, Kavanagh delivered Outram’s vital despatch to Sir Colin Campbell and ably guided his column to the relief of the Residency garrison.
Oliver Pepys, Associate Director and Medal Specialist at Noonans, said: “Kavanagh’s gallantry at Lucknow 165 years ago stands out as one of the most premeditated and sustained acts of gallantry in the history of the Victoria Cross and the price achieved at auction demonstrates the high regard which Kavanagh is still held in today.”
On 12 October, Noonans set another world auction record, this time for a Dickin Medal – the animal VC – at a hammer price of £140,000 in the sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria. The hugely emotive P.D.S.A. Dickin Medal for Gallantry, and the R.S.P.C.A. Red Collar for Valour awarded to War Dog Rob for his gallantry and outstanding service during the Second World War, came after he undertook 20 parachute descents while serving with Infantry in North Africa and the 2nd S.A.S. Regiment in Italy. The entire proceeds will be given to the Taylor McNally Foundation.

Platinum Jubilee highlights – Noonans’ Banknote department staged an inspired auction on 31 May titled The Platinum Jubilee Banknote Collection, offering 660 notes from all corners of the Commonwealth, a fitting tribute to Her Majesty.
The Jewellery department was honoured to offer two significant pieces with Royal links on 14 June in the auction of Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu. The first was a stunning Royal presentation diamond brooch given by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Lavina, Duchess of Norfolk, for assistance prior to her Coronation in 1953, It sold today for £180,000.
As Frances Noble, Head of the Jewellery Department and Associate Director at Noonans, explains: “The Duchess stood in for The Queen during the rehearsals held at Westminster Abbey in the lead up to the Coronation on 2 June 1953. As Earl Marshall of England, the Duchess of Norfolk’s husband, Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk, had overall responsibility for the organisation of the Coronation, and indeed he had also planned the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.”
She added: “Six identical brooches to this example were also given to the six Maids of Honour, who attended the Queen at the Coronation - Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Lady Anne Coke (later Lady Anne Glenconner), Lady Moyra Hamilton, Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton, Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, and Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill. This is the first time that one of these brooches has been offered for sale at auction. The brooch was accompanied by a handwritten letter from Her Majesty the Queen addressed to Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk and dated 4 June 1953, two days after the Coronation, in which she expressed her thanks to the Duchess.”
The sale also included an exquisite Art Deco diamond brooch formerly the property of Her Royal Highness The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Dating from circa 1930, the geometrically designed brooch is mounted in platinum and was bought by the current vendor from an auction at Sotheby’s in 1979, which had included a collection of seven jewels sold on behalf of Princess Margaret. The diamond brooch sold for £60,000.

The magnificent Leopard – An extremely rare and important Gold ‘Leopard’ coin (florin) from the reign of Edward III (1327-77), dating from January 1344 and minted in 23 carat gold at the Tower of London, sold for a premium-inclusive £173,600 in the auction of Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals on 8 March. Discovered in Reepham in Norfolk by metal-detectorist Andy Carter, the coin, which featured a Leopard sitting upright wearing a banner, had a face value of three shillings or 36 silver pennies and was in circulation for just seven months before being withdrawn. It sold to a Private UK Collector.

Triple triumph – The outstanding Indian Mutiny V.C. group of six awarded to Private Patrick Donohoe of the 9th Lancers, who at the Battle of Bolondshuhur on September 28, 1857, went to the aid of his severely wounded officer, sold for a hammer price of £220,000 in the Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria auction on 26 January.
The auction also saw a fine Battle of France and Battle of Britain Fighter Ace’s 1940 D.F.C. and 1945 ‘Test Pilot’s’ A.F. C. group of eight awarded to Hurricane and Spitfire pilot, Wing Commander P. L. Parrott, sell for a hammer price of £200,000.
Completing the trio of highlights here was the extremely rare, if not unique George Cross presented in 1940 for bomb disposal during the London Blitz, which sold for a hammer price of £110,000. The group of five was awarded to Sub-Lieutenant J. B. P. Duppa-Miller, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, who won the George Cross for his courage and skill in disarming a highly sensitive and dangerous magnetic mine in Barking Creek on September 23, 1940 during the Battle of Britain.

Modern hero – The outstanding ‘Afghanistan 2013’ C.G.C. group of five awarded to Corporal Josh Griffiths, 1st Battalion, Mercian Regiment, late Cheshire Regiment, sold for a hammer price of £130,000 in the Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria auction on 23 February. Corporal Griffiths who, having suffered a broken back and shrapnel fragments to his face in a bomb attack at Camp Folad, Helmand, Afghanistan in 2013, attended to other wounded men first despite his own debilitating injuries before confronting a party of insurgents which had entered the base throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons.
Dressed in light fatigues without protective equipment, Griffiths found a light machine-gun and engaged the enemy in a prolonged close range fire fight, thus allowing the wounded to be evacuated before leading an assault on the insurgents and clearing them from the base, only afterwards accepting medical treatment for his wounds, the seriousness of which necessitated his evacuation to the U.K.



Vale of Pewsey Hoard – A hoard of 142 Roman silver coins unearthed by three metal-detectorists with over 90 years detecting experience in a field in Wiltshire in September 2020 sold for a hammer price of £81,160 on 17 May.
Mick Rae, a 63-year-old herds manager; Robert Abbott (53) who owns a computer shop and Dave Allen (59) a carpenter, were spending the weekend camping on a field in Wiltshire. Dave and Rob both live in Essex, and Mick, at the time, lived in Wiltshire.
As Rob explained: “Having finished breakfast first, I turned on my machine, a Minelab Equinox 800, and having walked around six paces from the tent, I found several tent pegs and just under the surface a late Roman silver siliqua in pristine condition. A few moments later beside it, I found another one!”
This prompted both Mick and Dave to grab their detectors and help in the search. Over the course of the weekend they found 161 coins in total, comprising silver siliqua and miliarense dating from AD 340–402.

Racing certs – The 1877 Ascot Gold Cup – the prize for one of the world’s most prestigious flat racing events – sold for a premium-inclusive £136,400-120,000 in a sale of Selected Silver and Objects of Vertu on 29 November. In addition, the 1922 Grand National Trophy silver centrepiece took £29,760, while a Menagerie of decorative silver objects, fashioned as birds and beasts – many by leading German workshops towards the end of the 19th century – took £45,272.

Looking ahead – “We have had the privilege of offering a spectacular range of items throughout 2022 and are now looking forward to what is already shaping up to be an amazing 2023,” said Noonans’ chairman and CEO Pierce Noonan. “At the heart of our activity will be two of the most important collections the company has ever offered, each worth millions: The Puddester Collection Part One in February and the Frank Goon Reference Collection of British Malayan Banknotes Part One, which we will present for sale in Singapore in March.”