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Auction: 26005 - British and World Coins and Medals: The Martin J Waldron Collection of English Coins
Lot: 749

NGC MS63 BN | *Top Pop* | Poland, Lord Dudley Stuart, Memorial as Advocate of Independent Poland, AE Medal, 1859, by Antoine Bovy for the Polish Emigration Committee, awarded to Lady Murray in 1859, DVDLEY C. STVART CAVSÆ POLONÆ INDEFESSVS VINDEX EXVLVM POLONORVM AMICVS ET FAVTOR, bare head right, legend around, rev. ILLIC HONOS NOMENQVE TVVM LAVDESQVE MANEBVNT, topographical map of Poland and surrounding countries, LADY MURRAY . 1859 ., on edge, 13.13g, 62mm (Hutten-Czapski 3841; Eimer 1530; BHM 2659), very small edge mark to reverse, otherwise with lustre, the reverse topographical design of charming intricacy, handsome chocolate brown surfaces, much as issued, in NGC holder, graded MINT STATE 63 BROWN *Top Pop* (Cert. #8534390-002) [*Joint Finest Certified*]

https://www.ngccoin.uk/certlookup/8534390-002/63/



This medal was distributed by Prince Adam George Czartoryski as a memorial to Stuart in 1859.

Lady Elizabeth Mary Murray (18 May 1760 - 1 June 1825) was a British aristocrat whose life was shaped from its very beginning by remarkable international circumstances. She was born in Warsaw, Poland-Lithuania, the daughter of David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield, by his first marriage to the German Imperial Countess Henrietta Frederika von Bünau.


Her Polish roots were entirely the product of her father's diplomatic career, it was while he served as ambassador to the Elector of Saxony in Dresden that he met the Countess Henrietta, and the couple were married on 16 August 1759 in Warsaw. Notably, many English aristocrats at the time mistakenly assumed her mother to be Polish, when in fact she was German; even the writer Horace Walpole held this misconception.


After the tragic death of her mother in March 1766, Elizabeth was brought back to England and placed in the care of her father's uncle, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, and his wife at Kenwood House in Hampstead. It was there that her most celebrated bond was formed.


Lord Mansfield soon also took in Dido Elizabeth Belle (c. 1761-1804), the illegitimate daughter of his nephew Sir John Lindsay and Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman. The two girls grew up together at Kenwood, and their close bond was noted by the American visitor Thomas Hutchinson when he visited in 1779, around the time their joint portrait was painted by David Martin. Though the two were raised in the same household, Elizabeth received a yearly allowance of £100 while Dido received £20, a disparity likely reflecting both Dido's illegitimacy and her race.


In December 1785, aged 25, Lady Elizabeth married George Finch-Hatton in a love match. The couple would go on to have seven children, before George's death in 1823. Elizabeth died in Edinburgh on the 1 June, aged 65.

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Estimate
£300 to £400

Starting price
£200