A RARE medal from 1772 that sailed the globe on James Cook’s Second Voyage is to be sold in Tennants Auctioneers’ Militaria and Ethnographic Sale.
Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth aboard HMS Resolution, alongside the companion ship HMS Adventure which was under the command of Tobias Furneaux.
He carried with him two thousand medals – now known as Resolution and Adventure medals – that had been commissioned by the British Admiralty to present to or barter with indigenous people encountered on the voyage.
Captain James Cook
In addition, the medals were given out as favours to sailors during the voyage, and the remaining medals were taken on Cook’s Third Voyage. The medals were made from platina, an alloy of brass, copper, lead, tin and antimony, and had a bust of King George III on the obverse and a depiction of the Resolution and Adventure on the reverse.
A hanging loop was drilled into the rim at the top so the medal could be suspended by a ribbon from the neck.
The Resolution and Adventure medal now up for sale was given to the vendor by his grandmother when he was young, and he always kept it in his ‘treasure box’. However, the early provenance of the medal has been lost to time.
For more details of the auction on September 25 visit
www.tennants.co.uk
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