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Jean Baptiste Merlen
Jean Baptiste Merlen (1769–1850) was a French engraver and medallist. Biography Merlen began work at the Paris Mint, where he was responsible for designing the medal which celebrated Napoleon's coronation as Emperor in 1804. In 1815, after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, Merlen’s post at the Paris Mint was uncertain. As a result, he left and moved to London where he searched for work eventually being offered a post at the Royal Mint from February 1820. It is believed Benedetto Pistrucci, an established engraver at the Royal Mint in London, may well have met him in France and offered the post to Merlen in London. As Merlen was not eligible for a full-time post at the Royal Mint, he was hired on a temporary basis, with a salary of four guineas (84 shillings)-a-week, equivalent to £ as of . His most famous work was the obverse portrait of George IV from 1823 of the gold double sovereign, after an original work by Sir Francis Chantrey. The King had disliked ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1850 Deaths
Year 185 ( CLXXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lascivius and Atilius (or, less frequently, year 938 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 185 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Nobles of Britain demand that Emperor Commodus rescind all power given to Tigidius Perennis, who is eventually executed. * Publius Helvius Pertinax is made governor of Britain and quells a mutiny of the British Roman legions who wanted him to become emperor. The disgruntled usurpers go on to attempt to assassinate the governor. * Tigidius Perennis, his family and many others are executed for conspiring against Commodus. * Commodus drains Rome's treasury to put on gladiatorial spectacles and confiscates property to supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1769 Births
Events January–March * February 2 – Pope Clement XIII dies, the night before preparing an order to dissolve the Society of Jesus, Jesuits.Denis De Lucca, ''Jesuits and Fortifications: The Contribution of the Jesuits to Military Architecture in the Baroque Age'' (BRILL, 2012) pp315-316 * February 17 – The British House of Commons votes to not allow MP John Wilkes to take his seat after he wins a by-election. * March 4 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart Mozart in Italy, departs Italy, after the last of his three tours there. * March 16 – Louis Antoine de Bougainville returns to Saint-Malo, following a three-year circumnavigation of the world with the ships ''French frigate La Boudeuse (1766), La Boudeuse'' and ''French fluyt Étoile (1767), Étoile'', with the loss of only seven out of 330 men; among the members of the expedition is Jeanne Baré, the first woman known to have circumnavigated the globe. She returns to France some time after Boug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coins Of The Pound Sterling
The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling ( symbol "£", commercial GBP), and ranges in value from one penny sterling to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 (new) pence. Before decimalisation, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound. British coins are minted by the Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales. The Royal Mint also commissions the coins' designs. In addition to the circulating coinage, the UK also mints commemorative decimal coins (crowns) in the denomination of five pounds. Ceremonial Maundy money and bullion coinage of gold sovereigns, half sovereigns, and gold and silver Britannia coins are also produced. Some territories outside the United Kingdom, which use the pound sterling, produce their own coinage, with the same denominations and specifications as the UK coinage b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maundy Money
Royal Maundy is a religious service in the Church of England held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the service, the British monarch or a royal official ceremonially distributes small silver coins known as "Maundy money" (legally, "the King's Maundy money") as symbolic alms to elderly recipients. The coins are technically legal tender, but typically do not circulate due to their silver content and numismatic value. A small sum of ordinary money is also given in lieu of gifts of clothing and food that the sovereign once bestowed on Maundy recipients. The name "Maundy" and the ceremony itself derive from an instruction, or , of Jesus Christ at the Last Supper that his followers should love one another. In the Middle Ages, English monarchs washed the feet of beggars in imitation of Jesus, and presented gifts and money to the poor. Over time, additional money was substituted for the clothing and other items that had once been distributed. Beginning in 1699 the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonard Charles Wyon
Leonard Charles Wyon (23 November 1826 – 20 August 1891) was a British engraver of the Victorian era most notable for his work on the gold and silver coinage struck for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887 and the bronze coinage of 1860 with the second ("bun") head portrait, in use from 1860 to 1894. Career The eldest son of chief engraver William Wyon and his wife, Catherine Sophia, née Keele (d. 1851), Leonard Charles Wyon was born in one of the houses in the Royal Mint in 1826, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School. L.C. Wyon's father taught him art and also from his father he inherited great skill in die engraving. By the age of 16 he had already made several medals and some of his early work is displayed in the British Museum's Numismatic collection. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1843. From 1844 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools and in the same year, at the age of just 18, he became Second Engraver under his father at the Royal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Wyon
William Wyon (Birmingham 1795 – 29 October 1851), was official chief engraver at the Royal Mint from 1828 until his death. Biography Wyon was born in Birmingham and, in 1809, was apprenticed to his father, Peter Wyon who was an engraver and die sinker. In 1816, he went to London. He studied the works of John Flaxman, attended the schools of the Royal Academy, and gained a gold medal from the Society of Arts for a copy of the head of Ceres, and a second for an original group. In 1816 he was appointed assistant engraver to the mint, and in 1828 chief engraver. In 1831 he was elected associate and in 1838 full member of the Royal Academy. He died in Brighton, United Kingdom. Wyon is buried under a simple rectangular York stone slab at West Norwood Cemetery. He was the father of engraver Leonard Charles Wyon. Designs Under the influence of Flaxman, a master of relief sculpture, Wyon was a highly visible proponent of the Neoclassicist vogue. In 1834 he modelled the head of P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoria Of The United Kingdom
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, the British Parliament voted to grant her the additional title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After the deaths of her father and grandfather in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Victoria, a constitutiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William IV Of The United Kingdom
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain's House of Hanover. William served in the Royal Navy in his youth, spending time in North America and the Caribbean, and was later nicknamed the "Sailor King". In 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. In 1827, he was appointed Britain's first Lord High Admiral since 1709. As his two elder brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. His reign saw several reforms: the Poor Law was updated, child labour restricted, slavery abolished in nearly all of the British Empire, and the electoral system refashioned by the Reform Acts of 1832. Although William did not engage in politics as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward VI Of England
Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first English monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a regency council because he never reached maturity. The council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (1547–1549), and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick (1550–1553), who from 1551 was Duke of Northumberland. Edward's reign was marked by economic problems and social unrest that in 1549 erupted into riot and rebellion. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland and Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace. The transformation of the Church of England into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred under Edward, who took great interest in religious matters. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laureate
In English, the word laureate has come to signify eminence or association with literary awards or military glory. It is also used for recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Gandhi Peace Award, the Student Peace Prize, and for former music directors of orchestras who retain some level of involvement. History In ancient Greece, the laurel (''Laurus nobilis'') was sacred to Apollo, and as such, sprigs of it were fashioned into a crown or wreath of honor for poets and heroes. This symbolism has been widespread ever since. "Laureate letters" in old times meant the dispatches announcing a victory; and the epithet was given, even officially (e.g. to John Skelton) by universities, to distinguished poets. The name of "bacca-laureate" for a bachelor's degree shows a confusion with a supposed etymology from Latin bacca lauri (the laurel berry), which, though incorrect, involves the same idea. From the more general use of the term "poet laureate" arose its restriction in England to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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