Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Oxford and Cambridge University Athletics, 1864-1913
Mappin and Webb
Category
Coins and medals
Date
1913
Materials
Copper alloy
Measurements
38 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
United Kingdom
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 773326
Summary
Copper-alloy, medal for the Golden Jubilee of Oxford and Cambridge University Athletics, 1864-1913, Mappin & Webb, United Kingdom, 1913. A copper-alloy medal commemorating the golden jubilee, in 1913, of the establishment of Oxford and Cambridge Athletics Sports, in 1864. The obverse has the allegorical female figure of Victory, winged, helmeted and with a laurel wreath, who faces frontally. Either side of her are the shields of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, onto the edges of each of which Victory places a laurel wreath. The reverse has a blank cartouche, into which is hand-engraved the name ‘Jersey’. Kept in its original black and green leather case from Mappin & Webb.
Full description
The Cambridge University Athletic Association, today’s Cambridge University Athletic Club, was founded c. 1856. In the early 1860s the Association invited Oxford to participate in a joint athletic event, which eventually resulted in the holding of the first Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Athletics Match, consisting of eight events, at the Christ Church grounds, Oxford on 5 March 1864, the event happily ending in a tie. The medal celebrates the 50th anniversary or Golden Jubilee of those games, in 1913. The medal was presumably awarded to participants in the 1913 games. Other examples exist engraved on the reverse with their names, for example one with the name ‘J. C. Masterman’ for the spymaster Sir John Masterman (1891-1977), who won a second medal as winner of the High Jump event in the 1913 Games (sold Dix, Noonan and Webb, 22 July 2016, as part of lot 12). It is not clear to whom the name ‘Jersey’ inscribed into the reverse of the Osterley example should specifically refer, since the 7th Earl of Jersey (1845-1915) would have been far too old to have taken part in the 1913 Games. He suffered a stroke in 1909, so is also unlikely to have attended the 1913 Games in an official position that might have entitled him to an example. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Given to the National Trust in 1993 by George Child Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998).
Marks and inscriptions
Obverse, legend: + OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE ATHLETIC SPORTS + JUBILEE MEDAL Reverse, above and below cartouche: 50TH YEAR / 1864-1913 Case, cover: O.U.A.C. / 1864-1913 / C.U.A.C.
Makers and roles
Mappin and Webb , jeweller