Lot 414
(Hawaii) Bronze Royal Society's Captain Cook Memorial Medal. Bronze portrait medal by Lewis Pingo (1743-1830), chief engraver of the Royal Mint, for the Royal Society, 1784, one of 574 struck. Betts #553, M.H. #374. Showing a fine left-facing bust of Captain James Cook, explorer, surveyor and globe circumnavigator, in Naval uniform, 42mm. The legend: "OCEANI INVESTIGATOR ACERRIMVS [THE MOST INTREPID INVESTIGATOR OF THE SEAS]"; the reverse shows the personified figure of Fortune holding a Naval rudder atop a globe: "NIL INTENTATVM NOSTRI LIQUERE [OUR MEN HAVE LEFT NOTHING UNATTEMPTED]." 43mm. Cook had first seen the Americas when, as Master of the Mercury, he surveyed the St. Lawrence River as part of General Wolf's expedition to capture Quebec. He continued to serve on the North American Station until 1767. He twice circumnavigated the globe, first in 1768-71 and later in 1772-75. On his return, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He left on this third voyage in 1776 and was murdered by natives in the Sandwich Islands in 1779. The Royal Society issued this tribute medal in 1784 and struck examples of this medal in gold (19), silver (291) and bronzed copper (574), of which this is one. They were sold for the princely sum of a guinea for two (10s 6d or 52.5 pence each). The specimen in gold given to his widow is now in the British Museum. The portrait was copied by John Flaxman when designing the well-known Wedgwood jasperware plaquette. The medal is illustrated by C. Wyllis Betts, American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals, number 553.
Estimated Value $1,250 - 1,500.
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| Realized $978 |
