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Auction: 6018 - The Coinex Sale
Lot: 1282

Mexico, Charles IV (1788-1808), silver medal, 1796, by G.A. Gil, 59mm., conjoined busts right, signed on truncation, rev. statue, date and signature in exergue (VQ.14155), a few light scattered marks, otherwise about extremely fine, rare, in contemporary red leather case Estimate £ 200-300The equestrian statue to Charles IV, in the Plaza del Armas in Mexico city, was erected by the Viceroy Miguel de la Grúa, the Marqués de Branchiforte. Don Miguel, a Captain General in the Spanish Army and a Grandee of Spain (First Class), was a protegé of the Prime Minister Manuel Godoy. He arrived in Mexico as Viceroy of New Spain in 1794, and for the next four years he presided over the most corrupt government the colony had ever witnessed. To flatter the king, Don Miguel commissioned the sculptor and architect Manuel Tolsa to produce the grand equestrian statue, known as El Caballito. The flattery was not successful and Don Miguel was eventually dismissed and returned to Spain in disgrace in 1798. The statue was completed in 1803, and El Caballito is today a well known landmark in Mexico City.

Sold for
£480