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- A Issued By Melbourne, Australia
- A Awarded To Melbourne, Australia
- B Mint London, United Kingdom
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Medal - Melbourne Exhibition Prize, Victoria, Australia, 1854
Reg. No: NU 34997
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- Summary:
- Australia Victoria Melbourne
Melbourne 1854 Exhibition Prize Medal 1854 (AD)
Mint: Royal Mint London
Awarded to: Fulton & Smith
Other Details: A bronze prize medal (64 mm diameter) awarded to Fulton & Smith, millers, engineers and ironfounders based in Flinders Street, by the Melbourne 1854 Exhibition. It features a view by J.S. Wyon, whose name appears at the top right of the exergue, of the specially built exhibition building as it would have been seen from the Flagstaff Gardens together with an allegorical scene of a miner presenting a large gold nugget, a shepherd presenting a sheep and a farmer bearing a wheat sheaf to Britannia seated facing right and holding a trident in right hand and resting arm on a shield decorated with the Union Jack. The scene is framed by a tree and the Southern Cross is in the sky above Britannia. This medal was awarded for specimens of Colonial flour milled on their own machinery. The Exhibition opened on 17 December 1854 and ran for 30 days. Around 40,000 people attended - half of Melbourne's population. The exhibition building, at the site of the later Royal Mint in William Street, was based on the design of the Crystal Palace in London, which had hosted the Great Exhibition only three years earlier, in 1851. Melbourne's exhibition building had 200 ornamental windows and was lit by 306 gaslights. The exhibition included a modest 428 exhibits, mainly local industrial and agricultural products. Some of these exhibits went to Paris for the 1855 Exhibition. - Description:
- A bronze prize medal (64 mm diameter) awarded to Fulton & Smith for flour by the Melbourne 1854 Exhibition. It features a view by J.S. Wyon, whose name appears at the top right of the exergue, of the specially built exhibition building as it would have been seen from the Flagstaff Gardens together with an allegorical scene of a miner presenting a large gold nugget, a shepherd presenting a sheep and a farmer bearing a wheat sheaf to Britannia seated facing right and holding a trident in right hand and resting arm on a shield decorated with the Union Jack. The scene is framed by a tree and the Southern Cross is in the sky above Britannia.
- Acquisition Information:
- Transfer from National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), 1976
| Discipline: | Numismatics |
| Dimensions: | 64 mm (Diameter) |
| Dimension Comment: | weight > 100 g |
More information
| Tagged with: | exhibitions, flourmills, iconography |
| Themes this item is part of: | Fulton & Smith, Millers & Engineers, Melbourne, Victoria, Public Life & Institutions Collection, J.S. & A.B. Wyon, Engravers, London, England, J.S. & A.B. Wyon, Engravers, London, England, Williamstown Rifle Range, Victoria |
| Primary Classification: | MEDALS |
| Secondary Classification: | Civil |
| Tertiary Classification: | exhibition prizes |
| Series: | Australian Exhibition Prize Medals |
| DateEra: | 1854 AD |
| Obverse Description: | At centre, a view of the specially built exhibition building by J.S. Wyon, whose name appears at the top right of the exergue, as it would have been seen from the Flagstaff Gardens; above, MELBOURNE EXHIBITION; in exergue: VICTORIA / 1854 and in small letters, J.S.WYON SC. |
| Reverse Description: | Scene of a miner presenting a large gold nugget, a shepherd presenting a sheep and a farmer bearing a wheat sheaf to Britannia seated facing right and holding a trident in right hand and resting arm on a shield decorated with the Union Jack. The scene is framed by a tree and the Southern Cross is in the sky above Britannia. |
| Edge Description: | Impressed; 79 * FULTON AND SMITH * FLOUR * PRIZE MEDAL * |
| Inscriptions: | Edge: Impressed; 79 * FULTON AND SMITH * FLOUR * PRIZE MEDAL * Obverse: MELBOURNE EXHIBITION above the Exhibition building, in exergue: VICTORIA / 1854 J.S.WYON SC. Reverse: no inscription |
| Material: | Bronze |
| Issued By: | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1854 |
| Mint: | Wyon (Mint), London, England, Great Britain, 1854 |
| Artist: | Joseph Wyon |
| Awarded To: | Fulton and Smith, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1854 Millers and Engineers (they also won a medal for flour at the 1854 exhibition see NU 34997). |
| References: | Car. 1854/2 |
| Bibliography: |
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Themes
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