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Auction: 8012 - Ancient, English & Foreign Coins & Commemorative Medals
Lot: 222

U.S.A., George Washington, Eccleston´s ´Tribute´, bronze medal by T Webb, 1805, 76mm., general washington above draped and cuirassed bust of Washington right, signed webb on truncation, inscribed to his memory by d: eccleston. lancaster mdcccv. rev. legend in three concentric lines he laid the foundations of american liberty in the xviii century. innumerable millions yet unborn will venerate the memory of the man who obtained their countrys freedom, around the standing figure of an American Indian (as on the reverse of the William Penn medal, Betts 531), with the legend the land was ours (Baker 85), light marks around edge, very fine, rare Estimate £ 120-150 Daniel Eccleston traveled in the British West Indies and the United States before settling in Lancaster as a General Merchant and Insurance Broker. He claimed that ´´in my returning from Montreal to Boston, I sailed down Lake Champlain and Lake George, in a birch-bark canoe, with the King of the Connawaga nation, and five other Indians, and was 11 days and 12 nights on the lakes and in the woods with them. During my residence in Virginia, when at Alexandria, I had the pleasure, and I may also add the honour, of meeting with General Washington, who gave me an invitation to call and spend a few days with him on his estate on Mount Vernon.´´ Eccleston was a keen numismatist. In 1794 he issued a Halfpenny token bearing his portrait (D&H 57, Lancashire, Lancaster). He was very proud of his grandiose medal of Washington, sending examples to the government in America and numerous heads of state in Europe, including the Emperor of Russia. It is said he squandered all his personal wealth on these pursuits. He died in Kidside, Lancaster, in 1817.

Sold for
£360