Summary

Silver, Battle of Waterloo 175th anniversary commemorative medal, after Benedetto Pistrucci (1783-1855), struck Royal Mint, Llantrisant, United Kingdom, 1990. A modern strike in silver and at a reduced size of the celebrated Waterloo Medal designed by Benedetto Pistrucci (1784-1855), issued by the Royal Mint in 1990, to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, on 18 June 1815. The obverse depicts as conjoined busts in profile facing left, and with laurel crowns, the four allied sovereigns, from left the Prince Regent (later George IV, 1762-1830), Francis II, Emperor of Austria (1768-1835), Alexander I, Czar of Russia (1777-1825) and Frederick William III of Prussia (1770-1840). Around the portraits is a frieze containing allegorical and mythological allusions to the Battle of Waterloo and the Peace and Justice expected from the end of the wars. The reverse has in the centre two horsemen in Greek armour, with the features of the allied commanders the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) and the Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742-1819). They are being guided toward the battle by the winged figure of Victory. Around the central figures is a mêlée of struggling triton figures, with male torsos and fishes’ legs, symbolising the chaos of battle. Jupiter, the king of the gods, is in his chariot at centre top and hurls his thunder towards the combatants below, who are nineteen in number, representing the number of years that the conflict with Napoleon lasted. The medal is in a green leatherette presentation box and with a certificate signed by the Deputy Master and Chief Executive of the Royal Mint, A.D. Garrett. The original medal was commissioned in 1816 from Benedetto Pistrucci, a highly talented engraver and sculptor, who had come to London in 1814. It was intended to present copies of the medal in gold to the allied sovereigns, their ministers and generals. However, as a result of wranglings over Pistrucci’s position and the ambition of the design, progress was so slow that the dies for the medal were not completed until 1849, by which time all four of the sovereigns and most of the other intended recipients were long since dead. The size of the original medal (13.5 cm.) led to difficulties with its production, so that in the end only gutta-percha (a form of rubber-like early plastic made from latex) and electrotype impressions were taken from the original dies.

Full description

Benedetto Pistrucci was one of the most brilliant gem engravers of the first half of the nineteenth century. Born in Rome, he came to London 1814 following a short stay in Paris and quickly found important new patrons, including William Wellesley-Pole, Master of the Royal Mint. Pistrucci early caused a stir in London, by claiming that a cameo with the head of Flora, bought by the connoisseur Richard Payne Knight as a rare Roman antiquity, was in fact his work. In 1816, Pistrucci began to work at the Royal Mint at new designs for gold and silver coinage, including his famous reverse of Saint George and the Dragon, created for the new gold sovereign of 1817, and still in use to this day. On the death of Thomas Wyon in September 1817, Pistrucci became in effect Chief Engraver although, as an alien, he was not permitted officially to hold the title. His most ambitious medallic project was the Waterloo Medal. Pistrucci had only been in Britain for two years when he received the commission that was to bring him to fame, but also cause him enormous and ultimately unresolvable problems. The Battle of Waterloo, which took place near Brussels on 18 June 1815, brought victory to an alliance of Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia over the resurgent Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon had escaped from exile on the island of Elba in February 1815, had quickly driven the new French monarch Louis XVIII into exile and taken back power in Paris, where he ruled for the so-called Hundred Days. His defeat at Waterloo was a triumph for the allied coalition, since it finally brought peace to Europe after some two decades of conflict, whilst also allowing the problem of Napoleon to be dealt with once and for all, with the former emperor’s exile to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. The idea of commissioning a medal to commemorate the auspicious victory came originally from the Prince Regent. Pistrucci was asked to submit designs in 1816 and in 1819 he was formally commissioned to design the Waterloo Medal. Work proceeded very slowly, in part because of a dispute between the Master of the Royal Mint and Pistrucci, who was a difficult and touchy man, and took offence because he thought he should have been given the post of Chief Engraver at the Mint, which he was barred from as a foreigner and which had instead gone to William Wyon. Arguments over Pistrucci’s position at the Mint and his salary continued for the next two decades; it was only in August 1844 that his salary was finally raised in line with his expectations, allowing work on the medal to be resumed. The dies were announced as complete in 1849, long after almost all of the planned original recipients, with the exception of the Duke of Wellington, had died. Pistrucci’s final models in wax for both the obverse and the reverse are in the Museo della Zecca di Roma, in Rome (Stefanelli 1989, nos. 37 and 39), whilst the dies are in the Museum of the Royal Mint in Llantrisant. The wax models have inscriptions which were not included in the final medal. The medal was the largest ever designed to be produced by the process of striking, creating the medal by stamping a piece of blank metal between two steel dies, one engraved with the obverse design and the other with the reverse. Because it would at this time have been technically very difficult to harden the steel dies to the degree necessary for striking such a large medal, Pistrucci made each die in two parts, the central medallion and the outer ring. However, the dies were never hardened, so it was eventually decided that impressions could only be made in gutta-percha, a resinous-type substance, and also as electrotypes. The announcement for the electrotype edition, carried out by Mr. W. Johnson of Ledbury Road, London, was published in the Art Journal for November 1849 (reproduced in Brown, British Historical Medals, pp. 210-211). Even in these lesser materials, the Waterloo Medal is rightly recognised not only as Pistrucci’s masterpiece, but as one of the greatest medals ever to have been designed, with its beautifully-engraved figures and dense allegorical themes. The fullest and best description of the meaning of the different elements of the medal is to be found in the notice in the Art Journal: “The subject of both sides of the medal is treated allegorically, excepting the central part of the obverse, which represents the busts of the four allied sovereigns seen grouped together in profile. Around this group of actual portraits, the figures constitute an allegorical, mythological allusion to the treaty of peace which was consequent upon the great triumph on the field of battle. The summit of the surrounding groupings presents Apollo in his car restoring the day; the rainbow-zephyr and Iris follow the chariot of the sun in succession, but the zephyr is tending towards the earth and scattering flowers as the emblem of peace and tranquillity. On the opposite side, the car of Apollo is seen closely approaching the constellation Gemini, personified as usual by a pair of graceful youths, indicating the month in which the great contest took place. Castor and Pollux, each armed with spears, are intended to elucidate the apotheosis of Wellington and Blucher. Themis, the goddess of Justice, appears on earth, as in the golden age. This figure is placed in front of the profile busts of the sovereigns, to show that Justice is a greater security to government than Power. The goddess is seated on a rock; a palm tree waves over her head; she is prepared to reward virtue with its branches in one hand, and in the other holds a sword for the ready punishment of crime. Power is personified by a robust man of mature age, bearded and armed with a club; he is seated under an oak tree, and forms the corresponding figure at the back of the group of busts of the allied sovereigns, to that of Justice facing it. Beneath Themis, the Fates are introduced, to indicate that henceforward human actions will be controlled by Justice alone. These actions and passions are represented by the Furies, which, being placed beneath the emblematical figure of Power, are subjected to its influence, and no longer suffered to quit the infernal regions, or Cimmerian caverns, in which, at the base of this side of the medal, the allegory is completed by the figure of Night; the mother of the Fates receding into darkness from the ruling daylight of Phoebus’ car on the summit. The Reverse. – The central group on this side consists of a couple of equestrian figures, classically treated, but having the countenance of Wellington and Blucher. They are full of action, the figure personifying the hero of Waterloo is galloping in advance, and that of the veteran Blucher is rushing to the aid of his companion in glory, to complete the enemy’s destruction. They are guided by a female figure of a flying Victory, placed between them, conducting their horses to the conflict. Quite detached from this central group, and forming a border round it, a composition of many figures represents the battle of the Giants. They are struck down by the thunder of Jupiter; the youngest ones being the most daring in the assault of heaven, are the first to receive the divine punishment. In their descent they tumble over one another in every variety of attitude, symbolical of the confusion of the defeated enemy. The number of the figures of the giants is nineteen, illustrative of the nineteen years’ duration of the war; and in grouping these figures, they are represented following each other in succession.” Curiously, Pistrucci has depicted the Titans in the form of tritons, mythical sea creatures in the form of men with fish-tails for their legs. He may well have taken as his general model for the reverse a design by the Dutch sculptor Willem Danielsz van Tetrode (c. 1525-80) of Neptune, in which a central medallion with the sea god is surrounded by a circular frieze depicting tritons, sea monsters and nymphs. Tetrode’s design is known through bronze and lead plaquettes (Jeremy Warren, Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture. A Catalogue of the Collection in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 3 vols., Oxford 2014, nos. 474-750) as well as an engraving by Jacques de Gheyn III after a silver roundel. What may well be Tetrode’s original silver version is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Inv. WA 2013.1.111; Timothy Wilson and Matthew Winterbottom, Treasures of the Goldsmith’s Art. The Michael Wellby Bequest to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 2015, pp. 46-47, no. 13). In 1965, the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Messrs. Pynches issued impressions of Pistrucci’s great medal in 22 ct. gold, platinum and sterling silver and at a reduced size of 63 mm., thus comparable to the Royal Mint’s 1990 issue. The 1990 issue was in gold, silver and bronze; examples in all three materials were acquired by Lord Jersey for his collection (see NT 773319.2 and 773320). The number of medals struck for the edition was 175 (gold), 2,500 (silver) and 5,000 (bronze). Jeremy Warren 2019