Watch List notes:

The Pavilion Collection, Commemorative Medals, George IV, as Patron, the Benson Medal of the Royal Society of Literature, awarded to John Gawsworth in 1939, silver medal, obverse by William Bain, bare head to l., after Chantrey, GEORGIUS IV REG SOC LITT FUNDATOR ET PATRONUS MDCCCCXXIII, rev. unsigned, three figures personifying the Arts, stand holding named tablet, HONORIS CAUSA, 69mm. (cf. BHM.1218), Birmingham hallmark 1938, maker Fattorini & Sons, much knocked about and slight bending to flan, strictly fine, but a rare association item
bt. Baldwin Auction, 10 May 2013, lot 3177
The Royal Society of Literature was founded 17th June 1823. See footnote to previous two lots. The Benson Medal was founded in 1916 by Arthur C Benson to honour those who produce 'meritorious works in poetry, fiction, history and belles-lettres' and used the original King's Medal obverse. The new reverse dies replace a standing naked figure of Mercury holding a wand and book.
John Gawsworth (born Terence Ian Fytton Armstrong - 1912-1970), was a writer, poet, editor, bibliographer and compiler of anthologies. In 1947, following the death of the writer M.P. Shiel (1865-1947), he was crowned, as Juan I, the third king of Redonda, a tiny uninhabited island in the Caribbean, near Montserrat. His papers are held by the University of Reading.
(80-120 GBP)