Medals at Morton & Eden

Two important Victoria Cross medals, awarded during the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858, were among the highlights in Morton & Eden’s auction of Medals, Orders and Decorations in London. They sold for a combined total of £360,000.

The first of the two VC medals to come under the hammer was awarded to Captain George Forrest for ‘gallant conduct in the defence of the Delhi Magazine, on the 11 May 1857’, placing it amongst the earliest VCs to be awarded in the Indian Mutiny. It sold for £174,000.

The second of the two Indian Mutiny VCs was the Kashmir Gate VC awarded to Ensign John Smith of Royal Bengal Engineers. In broad daylight and under heavy musket fire Smith demonstrated ‘conspicuous gallantry’ during the storming and destruction of the Kashmir Gate at Delhi on 14 September 1857. It also sold well above an estimate of £70,000£90,000 fetching £186,000. Both VCs were bought by the same anonymous bidder.

Other notable lots included a Knight’s breast star (K.B.) for The Most Honourable Order of the Bath made c. 1809-1815. This magnificent star in pierced silver with gold fittings, together with applied gold and enamel detailing, the crowns and motto set with small rough-cut diamonds, attracted competitive bidding and finally sold for £36,000 .

Another group of three orders awarded to the British physician

Sir James Boniface Leighton (1769-1843) proved in demand. The lot comprised: Russia, Order of St Vladimir, Second Class breast star c. 1830; Russia, Order of St Anne, First Class breast star, evidently by the same European maker and also c. 1830 together with the Prussian, Order of the

Red Eagle, Second Class neck badge, c. 1820. His orders finally sold for £20,400.

The Griesbach Collection (part 1) was started by Leonard Griesbach (1903-1971), a successful machinetool engineer and businessman based in the Midlands. The collection achieved a total of £250,020 and amongst several highlights was the Grand Officer’s insignia of the Serbian Order of the White Eagle, sold for £6,000.

Chinese medals were also well represented in the auction with the bulk of the lots coming from the O’Dowd Collection: Orders, Medals and Decorations of the Republic of China. An extremely fine example of the Kwangsi, General Yu Yung T’ing, commemorative medal, in silvergilt, which was estimated to fetch £200-£300 eventually sold for £6,600 to a Chinese collector.

Another specialist collection was The Scandinavian

Collection: Orders, Medals and Decorations of Siam And Thailand. The highlight was the rare insignia of The Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao, Grand Cordon (Special Class), dating from the early 20th century, which sold for £84,000.

Equally sought-after was a set of insignia of The Most Illustrious Order of the House of Chakri, founded by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). The opulent set was once in the collection of Karl I of Austria and sold for £52,800. All prices include Buyer’s Premium of 20%.