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Auction: 7023 - The Glenister Collection of British Coins & other Ancient, English & Foreign Coins & Comm Medals
Lot: 437

Wax study on slate of a veiled head of Queen Victoria, by Leonard Charles Wyon, head left, wearing diadem with scroll decoration, the diadem partly hidden by the veil which falls in folds to the shoulders, the hair is parted at the forehead and carried behind the ear which does not have an earring, a detail in wax below the truncation has been blurred but not removed, pale pink wax, overall diam. 69mm. Estimate £ 100-200 Leonard Wyon designed the veiled bust for Victoria´s ´old head´ coinage, introduced in 1893, but several designs were prepared as early as 1888. The final version has a coronet rather than a diadem, and the Queen wears a single drop earring. Wyon had already designed a diademed head with similar scroll decoration for use on some Colonial coinage, for example the copper coins produced for Ceylon in 1870. A veiled head with diadem by Wyon had already been used for British campaign medals of the 1880s, for example the Egypt and Sudan Medal 1882-89 and the North West Canada Medal 1885, but on these the diadem has jewel decoration and the ear does not show.

Sold for
£260