Mudie Medals

[maridvnvm]

I wasn't sure where to put this and so the General forum seemed the best fit.

In 1820 James Mudie published a set of forty 41 mm bronze medals celebrating the British naval and military victories of the Napoleonic Wars. I don't actively collect them but did putrchase one many years back as it related to my home town where there used to be a memorial in his name.

This bronze medal depicts Lieutenant-General, Sir Thomas Picton. On the reverse side General Picton is shown planting the British colours on the rampart of Badajos while the inscription in the exergue states 'Badajoz Aprl. VI, MDCCCXII [1812].' Picton himself

Picton himself was not a nice man. He was governor of Trinidad and convicted of torture. He had the conviction overturned after claiming that Trinidad was subject to Spanish law, which permitted torture at the time. He was labelled the Tyrant of Trinidad. He continued in the Carribean and developed significant wealth from the slave trade. He was killed in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In recent times his statue has been remove from display in Cardiff City Hall where it had been displayed in the "Heroes of Wales" gallery.

These items need to be seen through the lens of time. I am in no way trying to celebrate the man who is depicted here but illustrate the Medal as a piece of historic exonumia and an illustration of the skill of the engraver.

Does anyone else have Medals from this series?

[DonnaML]

Very nice! I used to have about 30 of them, but sold most. I still have a half-dozen or so, and will post them later when I am at my desktop.

FYI, they were also issued in silver, but examples of those are much more expensive.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

Ok, @maridvnvm, here are the seven Mudie medals I still have (out of the 30+ I once owned) that I've photographed -- at least the reverses, which tend to be much more interesting than the obverses.

Mudie 7

Great Britain, Siege of Acre, 1799 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust l., uniformed, ADMIRAL SIR S. SMITH/ Rev. British Lion, within a rocky pass, protects Syrian camel from menacing French tiger. In exergue: ACRE DEFENDED. BUONAPARTE REPULSED SYRIA SAVED. XX MAY MDCCLXXXXIX. AE 41 mm. By G. Mills/ N.G.A. Brenet. Mudie 7, Eimer 906, BHM 476.

(All one has to do is compare the brawny British lion with his superhero-sized biceps and forearms to the scrawny, skulking, cowardly French tiger -- who doesn't even have stripes! -- to understand the respective national characters of the two nations in the eyes of the British!) 

Mudie 8, Arrival of English Army in Egypt:

Great Britain, Arrival of English Army in Egypt, 1801 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust facing, uniformed, LIEUT: GENL.: SIR R: ABERCROMBY. Rev. Horse standing, r.; beyond, three pyramids. ARRIVAL OF THE ENGLISH ARMY IN EGYPT. In exergue: 8 March 1801. AE 41 mm. By T. Webb. Mudie 8, Eimer 929, BHM 504.



Mudie 9, Egypt Delivered:

Great Britain, Egypt Delivered, 1801 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust three-quarters l., uniformed. MAJOR GEN. LORD HUTCHINSON. Rev. Exchanging a treaty, Hutchinson facing the Bey of Egypt, who holds the reins of a rearing horse; a pyramid beyond. EGYPT DELIVERED. In exergue: SEPT 11 MDCCCI. AE 41 mm. By T. Webb/A. Dupre. Mudie 9, Eimer 934, BHM 509.



Mudie 32, Napoleon's Flight from Elba / Congress of Vienna:

Great Britain, Napoleon's Flight from Elba/Congress of Vienna, 1815 (struck 1820). Obv. French eagle with thunderbolt (symbolizing Napoleon) approaches the French coast, Isle of Elba in background, to left TEMPLUM. JANI (Temple of Janus), with four-sided Janus on corner of roof, its doors lying broken (symbolizing the breaking of peace). In exergue: XXVI. FEBRUARY MDCCCXV. / Rev. Mercury, displaying a scroll inscribed TO ARMS, flying over globe carrying the news of Napoleon's flight, DECLARATION OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. In exergue: XIII MARCH. By N.G.A. Brenet/ A.J. Depaulis. AE 41 mm., 41.8 g. Mudie 32, Eimer 1064, BHM 869, Bramsen 1597.

Mudie 34

Great Britain, Battle of Waterloo medal, 1815 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust r. HENRY WILLIAM MARQUIS OF ANGLESEY. Rev. Equestrian figure of Anglesey l., leading a cavalry charge. CHARGE OF THE BRITISH AT WATERLOO. Ex. JUNE XVIII. MDCCCXV. AE 41 mm. By G. Mills/ A.J. Depaulis. Mudie 34, Eimer 1069, BHM 859.

Mudie 37, Surrender of Napoleon to HMS Bellerephon (my only Mudie medal in silver):

Great Britain, Surrender of Napoleon, 1815 (struck 1820). Obv. Bust of Napoleon right, uniformed; NAPOLEON BONAPARTE; signature below / Rev. British man of war Bellerophon, in full sail, with Imperial Eagle on flag staff; Napoleon stands on quarterdeck with right hand inside coat; another ship beyond; SURRENDERED TO H.B.M.S. BELLEROPHON CAPT. MAITLAND. Exergue: XV JULY. MDCCCXV; signatures below. By T. Webb/N.G.A Brenet. AR 41 mm., 38.8 g. Eimer 1078, Mudie 37, BHM 884, Bramsen 1691. Purchased at Spink Auction 136, Oct. 7, 1999, Lot 992.





Mudie 39, Admiral Lord Exmouth / Bombardment of Algiers by British Fleet, Aug. 1816 (after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and concerning the attack on Barbary to free European prisoners, but so be it!) The reverse shows Neptune (= the British as rulers of the sea) subduing a sea monster, namely a hippocamp (= Barbary) with his trident.


 

Edited June 3, 2022 by DonnaML

[maridvnvm]

@DonnaML - Thank you for sharing these. I bought mine sight unseen from one of the old unillustrated coin lists that were all we used to get back in the day. I was about 15 years old at the time and it pre dates my ancient collection by many years.

The Napoleon is the stand out star.

[DonnaML]

5 hours ago, maridvnvm said:

The Napoleon is the stand out star.

I agree, even apart from the fact that it happens to be in silver.

The Flight from Elba/Congress of Vienna medal appears on my phone as completely distorted for some reason, so I'll try again with each side posted separately:

 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

In addition to the Napoleonic "Entry into Moscow" medal I posted elsewhere, I also bought two new Mudie medals at the Noonans auction on June 15. The first is one I had wanted for many years, but it isn't seen that often.

Great Britain, Admiral Lord Nelson Memorial, 1805 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust three-quarters left, uniformed, ADM. LORD NELSON / Rev. Britannia (Mudie p. 40) or Bellona [Roman goddess of war] (BHM & Eimer) standing right, on the prow of a galley with lion’s head at prow, holding trident in left hand and thunderbolt in raised right hand. NILE 1. AUG 1798. COPE-NHAGEN 28 APRIL 1801. TRAFALGAR 21 OCT 1805 around. AE 41 mm. By T. Webb/J.P. Droz. Mudie 6 at Ch. VI pp. 27-40 (ill. Pl. 2) [James Mudie, An Historical and Critical Account of A Grand Series of National Medals (London 1820)], BHM I 595 [Brown, Laurence, British Historical Medals Vol. I, 1760-1837 (Seaby 1980)], Eimer 962 (ill. Pl. 103), Bramsen I 436.  Purchased from Noonans Auction 256, 15 Jun 2022, Lot 310.

Great Britain, Battle of the Pyrenees (The English Army Pass the Pyrenees), 1813 (struck 1820). Obv. Bare head of Wellington right, ARTHUR DUKE - OF WELLINGTON / Rev. British lion on right, with thunderbolt[?]* in mouth, attacks and savages French eagle beneath it on left, Pyrenees in background, THE ENGLISH ARMY PASS THE PYRENEES around; in exergue, MDCCCXIII with J. MUDIE below. By N.G.A. Brenet. AE 41 mm. Mudie 23 at Ch. XXIII pp. 104-107 (ill. Pl. 6), BHM I 760, Eimer 1034 (ill. Pl. 110), Bramsen II 1285. Purchased from Noonans Auction 256, 15 Jun 2022, Lot 322; ex Coincraft, London, with undated Coincraft ticket.

*My identification of the object in the lion's mouth as a thunderbolt is a guess, based on its similarity to the thunderbolt held by the figure (Britannia or Bellona) on the reverse of the Admiral Nelson medal. None of the sources I've consulted try to identify the object.

Edited June 26, 2022 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

13 hours ago, DonnaML said:

In addition to the Napoleonic "Entry into Moscow" medal I posted elsewhere, I also bought two new Mudie medals at the Noonans auction on June 15. The first is one I had wanted for many years, but it isn't seen that often.

Great Britain, Admiral Lord Nelson Memorial, 1805 (Struck 1820). Obv. Bust three-quarters left, uniformed, ADM. LORD NELSON / Rev. Britannia (Mudie p. 40) or Bellona [Roman goddess of war] (BHM & Eimer) standing right, on the prow of a galley with lion’s head at prow, holding trident in left hand and thunderbolt in raised right hand. NILE 1. AUG 1798. COPE-NHAGEN 28 APRIL 1801. TRAFALGAR 21 OCT 1805 around. AE 41 mm. By T. Webb/J.P. Droz. Mudie 6 at Ch. VI pp. 27-40 (ill. Pl. 2) [James Mudie, An Historical and Critical Account of A Grand Series of National Medals (London 1820)], BHM I 595 [Brown, Laurence, British Historical Medals Vol. I, 1760-1837 (Seaby 1980)], Eimer 962 (ill. Pl. 103), Bramsen I 436.  Purchased from Noonans Auction 256, 15 Jun 2022, Lot 310.

 

Regarding the question of whether that's Britannia or Bellona on the reverse of the Admiral Nelson medal -- which I'm sure caused all of you a sleepless night last night -- I was considering putting up a poll. But decided that I'm already rather sure of the correct answer, and don't really need one to help me make up my mind. There are three main reasons:

1. James Mudie said that it's Britannia in the book about the series that he wrote himself (see p. 40). He didn't design the coins, but it was his series of medals, and surely he should have known?

2. The fact that there's a lion's head on the prow of the galley upon which the figure stands. Needless to say, the lion is associated with Britain. And not particularly with Rome.

3. Perhaps most persuasively, the figure carries a trident, not a spear or sceptre (as described incorrectly in more than one catalogue). By the time the medal was struck in 1820, Britannia almost always held a trident on British coins and medals -- "Britannia rules the waves" and all that sort of thing -- and had done so for some time. See, e.g., the reverse of my 1797 cartwheel twopence:

By contrast, I'm not aware of any iconography of Bellona, the Roman goddess of war -- either in ancient times or in Neoclassical design -- associating her with a trident (an attribute of Neptune) as opposed to a spear or sword. 

Therefore, I think that Christopher Eimer's and Laurence Brown's identification of the reverse figure on the medal as Bellona must be incorrect.

Edited June 26, 2022 by DonnaML

[DonnaML]

I bought two more Mudie medals at the most recent Noonans auction, giving me 12 of the 40 at the moment. (I once owned about 30 of them, but very much doubt I'll ever approach that number again -- there aren't enough that interest me sufficiently anymore, historically or artistically, to buy that many.)

I especially like the first of the two, which probably has as much ancient Roman iconography as any of the series. Even those of you with no particular familiarity with "modern" historical medals may find it interesting.

Great Britain, English Army on the Tagus (Lines of Torres Vedras), 1811 (struck 1820). Obv. Duke of Wellington, as a Roman general (Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, ca. 280-203 BCE, known as “Cunctator” [the Delayer]), seated left in front of his tent, studying open scroll on his knee, “meditating on his future operations” [Mudie, infra, p. 83]; his left hand reaches back to grasp edge of shield decorated with thunderbolt, held upright on ground behind him, his helmet lying next to his shield; in exergue, FABIUS CUNCTATOR / Rev. River god personifying the Tagus River in Portugal, reclining before tents of British army (with tent in foreground flying Union Jack) near town of Torres Vedras north of Lisbon, holding long staff  in right hand and resting left arm on urn from which water flows; to left of tents, orange tree represents Portugal under British protection; in exergue in four lines, LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS | THE ENGLISH ARMY | ON THE TAGUS | 1810 . 1811. 41 mm., 40.43 g. By L.M. Petit / E.J. Dubois. Eimer 1016 (p. 145) [Christopher Eimer, British Commemorative Medals and their Values (Spink, 2nd ed. 2010)]; BHM I 713 (p. 174) [Laurence Brown, British Historical Medals Vol. I, 1760-1837 (Seaby 1980)]; Bramsen II 1138 (p. 31) [Ludvig Ernst Bramsen, Médaillier Napoléon le Grand, ou, Description des médailles, clichés, repoussés, et médailles-décorations relatives aux affaires de la France pendant le consulat et l'empire, Vol. II, 1810-1815 (Copenhagen 1907), available at Newman Numismatic Portal]; Eimer Wellington 8 (ill. p. 21) [Christopher Eimer, Medallic Portraits of the Duke of Wellington (Spink 1994)]; Mudie 17 at Ch. XVIII pp. 80-83 (ill. Pl. 5) [James Mudie, An Historical and Critical Account of a Grand Series of National Medals (London 1820)]. Purchased from Noonans Mayfair (formerly Dix Noonan Webb), London, UK, Auction 271, 5 Apr. 2023, Lot 837 (“the Property of a Gentleman”).*

*See BHM I 713 p. 174: “During the winter of 1809 Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) had been fortifying a series of lines around Lisbon on the heights of Torres Vedras. Led by Marsha Masséna, the French troops numbering 80,000 men advanced across the Spanish frontier. Met by stiff resistance from the Portuguese, the French suffered heavy losses and were forced to dig into winter quarters in a wasted countryside before Torres Vedras. Hunger, sickness and the increasing scarcity of supplies eventually forced the French to retreat into Spain freeing Portugal from Napoleon. The legend on the obverse of this medal draws a simile between Wellesely and Quintus Fabuius Maximus Verrucosus who, by his tactics in the Second Punic War, kept Hannibal in check for some time without coming to an engagement." 

See also Mudie Ch. XVII, pp. 80-82, describing in detail Wellington’s scorched earth policy and the “most appalling character” of the French army’s sufferings while they remained before the Allies’ impregnable position. Thus the comparison to “the celebrated Roman general Fabius, who, by protracted delay and avoiding to fight, eventually defeated the greatest general of antiquity – Hannibal; and was therefore called Fabius Cunctator, or Fabius the Delayer.” Id. p. 83. According to Mudie’s rather melodramatic account, Wellington’s plan “in its consequences may be said to have involved the salvation of Europe. It was after Wellington quitted the lines of Torres Vedras, that he commenced his unbroken series of conquests which ceased not till he had planted the flag of England on the soil of imperial France. Had he been compelled to evacuate Portugal, and fly to his ships, who will be bold enough to say, that Europe would have been redeemed from the bondage of Napoleon?” Id. p. 82.

Perhaps ironically, one of Napoleon’s own medals, commemorating his sojourn at Osterode in East Prussia in 1807 following the Battle of Eylau, had previously used a Fabius Cunctator analogy. I suspect that the kind of people who purchased medals in early 19th century Europe were better educated in Roman history than the average collector today, very few of whom, I suspect, would recognize the name. See Bramsen I 631; the engraver of the medal (not mine) was Bertrand Andrieu:

(David Thomason Alexander explains the analogy in his new book, A Napoleonic Medal Primer (2022), at p. 100, “Severe French losses at Preussische-Eylau necessitated a lengthy layover to rest and reinforce Napoleon’s army before resuming the offensive. Fabius the Delayer was chosen to symbolize Napoleon’s elaborate indifference to British feints near the Netherlands; showing no panic reaction, the Emperor remained seemingly unconcerned in East Prussia.”)

 

Great Britain, Battle of Salamanca (The British Army Enters Madrid), 1812 (struck 1820), by N.G.A. Brenet. Obv. British troops at left prepare an advance, right, towards French troops on the Arapiles Mountains (south of Salamanca, Spain), at whom Bellona (Roman goddess of war), armed with sword and thunderbolt, hurls thunder and lightning; in exergue in two lines, JULY XXII. MDCCCXII | SALAMANCA (signed MUDIE D. to right) / Rev. Equestrian figure of Wellington left, bareheaded, with left hand raised to receive garland of flowers from Spanish couple; in exergue in three lines, THE BRITISH ARMY ENTERS | MADRID | AUG. XII. MDCCCXII; signed BRENET F. at left edge. 41 mm., 40.42 g. Eimer 1026 (pp. 146-147) (ill. Pl. 109); BHM I 735 (ill. p. 179); Bramsen II 1175 (p. 37 [Bramsen identifies the obverse as the reverse, and vice versa]); Eimer Wellington 14 (ill. p. 23); Mudie 21 at Ch. XXI pp. 95-98 (ill. Pl. 6).  Purchased from Noonans Mayfair (formerly Dix Noonan Webb), London, UK, Auction 271, 5 Apr. 2023, Lot 847 (“the Property of a Gentleman”).*

*See BHM I 735 at p. 179: “The Battle of Salamanca which took place on the 22nd July 1812 was one of the most decisive of the Peninsular War and the first victory on the offensive achieved by Wellington. Marshal Marmont made the mistake of dispatching the whole of his left wing to seize the road from Salamanca to Ciudad Rodrigo and while many of his troops were still marching through a thick forest of cork trees, Wellington attacked and separated the whole of the French left wing from the rest of the army. Marmont’s division, believing that the British were in retreat, were marching in disorder and upon being attacked by Sir Edward Packenham were soon put to flight. This victory finally opened the road to Madrid for the Allies: they entered the city on the 12th August 1812.” See also Mudie Ch. XXI at pp. 95 and 98, emphasizing the position of Marshal Marmont’s troops on “the bold rocky heights called the Arapiles, . . . covered by a thick wood,” and commending the British armies’ “great courage in dislodging the French . . from their very advantageous positions on the heights.”
 

Edited April 16, 2023 by DonnaML