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Lot 96
Description:
"Merit / to Master Ja.s Cunningham / In the various branches of / Literature in which he / has been instructed / T. Wood Pre.r"
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Dimensions:
- Diameter 49.5mm Literature:
- 393 Medium:
- Collectibles Circa:
- Coins, Monies & Stamps Notes:
- Collectors of Australiana and particularly the work of the acclaimed early Australian silversmith Samuel Clayton would be familiar with his craftmanship evident in the Halloran School medals that turn up from time to time. To date eight of these coveted prize medals have surfaced, each bearing the maker’s mark ‘S. Clayton’, with the earliest dated 1819 the year that Halloran, a convicted felon, established his first private school in Sydney, and the last in 1826 when he headed-up the ‘Sydney Public Free Grammar School’. This was shortened to ‘Sydney Grammar School’ as it appears on the 1826 medal which is why this is sometimes claimed as the starting point of the modern ‘Sydney Grammar School’. Laurence Halloran’s schools were recognised for their academia, but he was not the sole provider of quality education to the youth of the Colony. 1n 1813 another freed convict, Isaac Wood, had established ‘the Sydney Academy’ at Parramatta which in a search for larger premises moved first to Pitt Street Sydney in 1815, then to Phillip Street in 1816 before finally settling in Macquarie Street alongside the Sydney Domain in 1819. ‘The Sydney Academy’ was more progressive than the Halloran schools and flirted with co-education in 1820 by accepting girl students. Its founder and preceptor Isaac Wood died in 1823 and the running of the school was taken over by William Cape who employed his 17-year-old son William Timothy Cape in his first teaching role. However, young William’s desire to teach the classics saw him move to Halloran’s ‘Sydney Public Free Grammar School’ in 1826. Halloran fell out of favour with the trustees and the school closed at the end of 1826 forcing Cape’s move to the Sydney Public School in 1827 before he established his own college in King Street in 1829. With his reputation firmly established as an educator, in 1834 he was appointed the first headmaster of ‘Sydney College’ which opened its doors in 1835 on the site of the modern-day ‘Sydney Grammar School’ and whose campus includes the original College building. Both Wood and Halloran gave out prize or merit awards to their best students in the form of silver medals which were the work of the leading Colonial silversmith Samuel Clayton who was so highly regarded that he was also responsible for engraving the printing plates for Australia’s first banknotes issued by the Bank of New South Wales as well as our first postage stamp. The ‘Halloran’ medals are all inscribed ‘S. Clayton’ while the sole surviving prize medal of ‘the Sydney Academy’ is unmarked. However, if you compare the font of the letters on both medals like-for-like then there is no doubt about the authorship of ‘the Sydney Academy’ medal. The ‘S’, ‘N’, ‘E’, ‘A”, ‘M’ & ‘O’ lettering on the ‘Halloran’ and ‘Academy’ medals all bear the same shape and serifying typical of the hand of Samuel Clayton.The “Merit” award given by I(saac) Wood Pre(cepto)r to Master Ja(p) Cunningham for his success in ‘Examinations” in “the various branches of Literature in which he has been instructed” was presented to him “at the Sydney Academy Macquarie Street on December 25th 1822.” It is pre-dated by only two of the ‘Halloran’ medals confirming it as an important part of Australia’s early Colonial history. (Research into the life of Master Cunninghmam continues but his timeline coincides with a J Cunningham who appears in the Population Muster of 1819 living at the residence of Jo Walter) Condition:
- Please note that the original auction photos for this listing were taken from file photos. We have re-photographed the medal which has been lightly cleaned since we last saw it. It is now best described as EF detail lightly brushed.
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6 October 2018 11:00 AEST
Paddington, Sydney, Australia
Smalls Auctions
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Bid Increments
| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| A$0 | A$99 | A$5 |
| A$100 | A$999 | A$10 |
| A$1,000 | A$4,999 | A$50 |
| A$5,000 | A$9,999 | A$100 |
| A$10,000 + | A$250 |