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Queen Victoria: Visit to Birmingham

Medal
1858 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This medal commemorates the visit of Queen Victoria to Birmingham and is made by the medallist Jonathan Moore in 1858.

Aston Hall once belonged to the Holtes, a royalist family, and Charles I had rested there in 1642. The Corporation of Birmingham desired to buy the park and hall but the price of £ 40,000 was too large for their means. Local working men and their employers, with other wealthy assistance raised the necessary money for the purchase. The park was used for a playground and the hall for exhibition purposes.

Joseph Moore (1817-1901) was a British engraver and medallist who already at ten years of age convinced his parents to let him earn his own living and entered the office of a then well-known silversmith.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleQueen Victoria: Visit to Birmingham (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Zinc
Brief description
Medal, commemorating the visit of Queen Victoria to Birmingham,by Jonathan Moore, Britain, 1858
Physical description
Medal depicts on the obverse the diademed head of Queen Victoria on a medallion within a closed wreath. On the reverse there is a view of the main front of Aston Hall.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 5.4cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'VICTORIA REGINA' (obverse, around bust)
  • 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN' (obverse, on a ribbon dividing the field horizontally)
  • 'TO COMMEMORATE THE VISIT OF / HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY / TO BIRMINGHAM / ON THE 15th JUNE 1858.' (obverse, above ribbon)
  • 'TO OPEN ASTON HALL AND PARK / AS A PLACE OF PUBLIC RECREATION / JOHN RATCLIFF ESQ. MAYOR.' (obverse, below ribbon)
  • 'ASTON HALL, BEGAN 1618. COMPLETED 1635.' (reverse)
  • 'BOUGHT (WITH 43 ACRES / OF PARK) / BY THE / PEOPLE OF BIRMINGHAM' (reverse, in exergue)
Historical context
Aston Hall once belonged to the Holtes, a royalist family, and Charles I had rested there in 1642. The Corporation of Birmingham desired to buy the park and hall but the price of £ 40,000 was too large for their means. Local working men and their employers, with other wealthy assistance raised the necessary money for the purchase. The park was used for a playground and the hall for exhibition purposes.
Subject depicted
Place depicted
Summary
This medal commemorates the visit of Queen Victoria to Birmingham and is made by the medallist Jonathan Moore in 1858.

Aston Hall once belonged to the Holtes, a royalist family, and Charles I had rested there in 1642. The Corporation of Birmingham desired to buy the park and hall but the price of £ 40,000 was too large for their means. Local working men and their employers, with other wealthy assistance raised the necessary money for the purchase. The park was used for a playground and the hall for exhibition purposes.

Joseph Moore (1817-1901) was a British engraver and medallist who already at ten years of age convinced his parents to let him earn his own living and entered the office of a then well-known silversmith.
Bibliographic references
  • Inventory of Art Objects Acquired in the Year 1858. In: Inventory of the Objects in the Art Division of the Museum at South Kensington, Arranged According to the Dates of their Acquisition. Vol I. London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., 1868, p. 17
  • Brown, Lawrence. British Historical Medals 1837-1901 - The Reign of Queen Victoria. London: 1987, cat.no. 2613
Collection
Accession number
6043-1858

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Record createdJune 18, 2009
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