74
74 A surely unique opportunity to acquire in a single offering at auction a complete set of cased gold, silver and bronze prize medals from the 1908 London Olympic Games all awarded to Great Britain competitors, each with an identical design by Bertram Mackennal, by Vaughton of Birmingham in hallmarked gold, silver and bronze, two young maidens are crowning a winning athlete, the reverse with St George slaying the dragon, the gold medal in a red leather case with maroon velvet lining, the silver medal in a dark blue case with purple velvet lining, and the bronze medal in a tan leather case with emerald green velvet lining, the rim of each medal and its case lid inscribed as follows:
WINNER, WATER POLO, CHARLES SYDNEY SMITH; OLYMPIC GAMES, WINNER, WATER POLO, LONDON, 1908
SECOND PRIZE RUNNING DEER TEAMS OLYMPIC GAMES, SECOND PRIZE, RUNNING DEER, TEAMS, LONDON, 1908
THIRD PRIZE BANTAM BOXING OLYMPIC GAMES, THIRD PRIZE, BANTAM BOXING, LONDON, 1908
Surely a unique opportunity to acquire examples of all three prize medals from the first London Olympic Games of 1908 in one lot at auction.
The gold medal was presented to Charles Sydney Smith (1876-1951). He was born in Wigan the ninth of eleven
children. He was the Great Britain water polo goalkeeper who won back-to-back golds at London 1908 & Stockholm 1912 and then, remarkably, returned to the sport aged 41, to help win British gold for a third time at Antwerp in 1920. For the complete record he was still competing at Paris in 1924, but GB were eliminated in the first round. At Stockholm in 1912 he became the first competing athlete to be invited to be the team’s flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony.
The silver medal relates to the Great Britain team that finished second in the men’s team single shot running deer competition, one of 15 events in the shooting programme at the London 1908 Games. The team consisted of four marksmen Charles Nix, William Russell Lane-Joynt, Walter Ellicott and Ted Ranken. It is not known to whom this particular medal was awarded. A deer-shaped target made 10 runs of 75 feet which lasted about four seconds. Each competitor was allowed one shot per run from a distance of 110 yards. Concentric circles were drawn on the ‘deer’ with 1-4 points available on the target. Great Britain narrowly missed out on gold accumulating one point less than Sweden’s winning score of 86 from a possible 160 points.
The bronze medal was won by the British bantamweight boxer William ‘Wally’ Webb. Britain in fact won a clean sweep of medals in this weight division. Wally Webb had lost to his compatriot John Condon in the semi-final. Very little is known of Webb. He was born 19th November 1882 and affiliated to the 17th North Middlesex School of Arms Amateur Boxing Club. £15,000 - 20,000
29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164