Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 7023 - The Glenister Collection of British Coins & other Ancient, English & Foreign Coins & Comm Medals
Lot: 410

Wax study on slate of a portrait of Queen Victoria, by William Wyon, c.1837, young head left, her hair loosely tied in a bun behind, 104mm., in circular gilt frame Estimate £ 1,000-2,000 Exhibited: Commemorating the 19th century: coins and medals by the Wyon family, British Museum, 7 March - 8 September 1996. British Museum History of Money, permanent display (opened in 1997) The British Museum display card reads ´Wax study of Queen Victoria´s ´young head´ portrait by William Wyon, c.1837. The reducing machine cut the punches for Victoria´s coinage from a version of this portrait.´ Wyon´s famous portrait of the young Queen Victoria, for which this is the historically interesting and numismatically extremely important model, is described by Leonard Forrer in his Biographical Dictionary thus: ´Head and truncated neck of the Queen in profile and looking to the left. A plain diadem and a plain fillet bind the wavy hair, which is parted at the forehead, carried over the top of the ear, and gracefully collected into a knot, with three curls hanging, behind the head. The diadem and fillet is partly hidden by the hair.´ ´Wyon´s head of Queen Victoria for the coinage received universal approbation and still ranks as one of the noblest productions, combining beauty of design and perfect execution, in the British numismatic series. Sainthill says "The graceful arrangement, character, and expression of the whole bust, its breadth and softness, the perfect youth, yet sweetly defined womanhood, of the features: the exquisite delicacy of the line connecting the cheek and neck; and the surpassing beauty of the lower part of the face and lip, strike us as a combination of excellences where all the truth of nature is displayed in all the perfection of art" (Olla Podrida I, 65)´.

Sold for
£8,200