Charles I execution rare memorial medal to go under hammer in Scarborough
A stunning memento of a unique event in English history that horrified the world is to go under the hammer in an auction in Scarborough, just hours before the 377th anniversary.
It was on the afternoon of Friday January 30, 1649, that King Charles I was publicly beheaded on a scaffold that had been erected outside the Banqueting Hall on Whitehall in London.
The execution shocked not only the country but the whole of Europe.
The Royalists had lost a bitter civil war but few people expected that Cromwell and the extremist wing of the victorious Parliamentarians would actually kill the King.
Within weeks of the execution memorial medals and badges were being created and were circulating in Royalist circles, hidden pieces that were held by people who had the wherewithal to acquire them and prepared to risk owning such dangerous treasures at a time when even publication of an anti government pamphlet could result in arrest and an accusation of treason.
It is a particularly rare and fine quality memorial medal, one produced very quickly after the execution, that has been entered in David Duggleby’s Militaria, Medals and Sporting Guns Auction on Thursday January 29.
Designed by Thomas Rawlins, who was the Chief Engraver at the Royal Mint during the Civil War, the face of the silver gilt medal depicts the King in profile, looking to the right, with a Latin inscription that translates as ‘Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain and Ireland’.
The reverse bears the Royal Arms with the motto of the Order of the Garter ‘Shamed be he who thinks evil of it’ inscribed in French.
The medal is bordered by a wreath on both sides, a feature that played a key part in the speed with which Rawlins was able to produce a memorial medal so quickly after the King’s execution.
Duggleby specialist Jessica Tarver said: “Thomas Rawlins had created numerous medals and badges for the Royalist side during the Civil War, including some that were an almost identical design to this.
"The wreath was all he had to add for the medal to become a memorial piece.
“The Rawlins medal is the best that I’ve seen, a museum quality silver gilt piece designed by the leading engraver of the day, almost certainly for an aristocratic Royalist sympathiser.
“Quickly though it was produced, it is one of the most tasteful.
"Later memorial pieces became increasingly mawkish, featuring angels, celestial crowns, lost sheep and even in one case a seven-headed monster raging over the King’s decapitated head!”
Jessica added: “The medal in the auction is also something of a television star - it was featured on an edition of the Antiques Roadshow some years ago when a member of the family in which it has been passed down took it along for an assessment.”
The pre-sale estimate is £2,000 to £5,000.
A total of 162 lots will be going under the hammer in the sale.
Visit www.davidduggleby.com to see the catalogue.
Viewing is taking place at the Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough throughout the week including Thursday morning (Jan 29) from 9am until the start of the timed automatic online auction at 11am.