Matthew Boulton

Matthew Boulton, 10th Anniversary of his Death, 1819, the master puncheon die for the obverse of the Memorial Medal, by G F Pidgeon, in the style of Küchler and after Peter Rouw, bust right, in frock coat, his hair en queue, in positive, without legend, but signed PIDGEON F below bust, 56 x 80mm (cf BHM 976; Eimer 1114; Pollard pp 316-318). Good fine, actual medal surface showing some rust damage.

Work on the Memorial Medal commenced early in 1812 and as Rouw's wax of 1803 had been broken, he had to prepare a new one for Pidgeon to work from. It was finished in 1815, and the reverse was commenced in November of that year. The obverse squeeze illustrated by Pollard, pl XXIII, 3, differs from the present bust in having no tie to the queue. Pollard quotes Matthew Robinson Boulton writing that it had been completed, "after innumerable obstacles & disappointments…. And finally by the death of the engraver in the progress of the work ….".