Baldwin & Sons
Auction 93 5 May 2015
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
COMMEMORATIVE MEDALS, British Historical Medals, Captain George Farmer, RN (1732-1779), Oval Liverpool Porcelain Portrait Plaque with enamel sepia tinted transfer print, c.1780, his half-length bust three-quarters right holding a sword, named below on ribband, CAPT FARMER, in copper border with suspension loop, 82.5mm x 55mm including loop. The portrait in excellent undamaged condition, the reverse showing faint hairlines, excessively rare.
Farmer was a hero of the frigate HMS Quebec and killed in battle against the French off Ushant on 6 October 1779. His conduct was so highly praised that, at the request of the Admiralty, a baronetcy was conferred on his eldest son, aged just 17. Farmer's career had seen service in the Falkland Islands in 1769, where his ship, HMS Swift was sunk and he was forced to surrender to the Spanish. Acquited of blame he was appointed to HMS Tamar and sailed for the West Indies in 1761 with Horatio Nelson as a midshipman.
The plaque is after a portrait by Charles Grignion the Younger, now in the National Portrait Gallery. A much damaged example of the plaque is to be found in the Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Collections (EM308).
Estimate: £400-600
Farmer was a hero of the frigate HMS Quebec and killed in battle against the French off Ushant on 6 October 1779. His conduct was so highly praised that, at the request of the Admiralty, a baronetcy was conferred on his eldest son, aged just 17. Farmer's career had seen service in the Falkland Islands in 1769, where his ship, HMS Swift was sunk and he was forced to surrender to the Spanish. Acquited of blame he was appointed to HMS Tamar and sailed for the West Indies in 1761 with Horatio Nelson as a midshipman.
The plaque is after a portrait by Charles Grignion the Younger, now in the National Portrait Gallery. A much damaged example of the plaque is to be found in the Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Collections (EM308).
Estimate: £400-600