Watch List notes:

1848 British Naval General Service medal with one clasp. 29 APRIL BOAT SERVICE 1813. Silver, 36 mm. MY-94 (clasp ccxxvi), BBM-39. About Uncirculated.
GEO. BISHOP, LIEUT. R.N. punched on edge. About Uncirculated. Boldly reflective, chiefly brilliant, and displaying some subtle golden toning. Slightly polished and showing light hairlines, but flashy and attractive, with no significant marks or damage. The clasp is nicely preserved.

The recipient, Lieutenant George Bishop, served aboard the HMS Statira, a 38-gun vessel built in 1807 that sank off Cuba in 1815.

One of the most elusive and important clasps of the War of 1812, this clasp and the related APRIL & MAY BOAT SERVICE 1813 clasp issued to several present at the same action were given to veterans of a terror-inducing campaign to the source of the Chesapeake Bay, the Susquehanna River and Elk River at Head of Elk, Maryland. The nearby communities of Havre de Grace and Frenchtown were leveled during the last days of April and first days of May 1813. Rear Admiral George Cockburn's forces also destroyed Principio Furnace, an important ironworks nearby. On the medal rolls, this action is described as "Destruction of battery, stores, and vessels at Frenchtown, and cannon foundry and battery at Havre de Grace, up Elk River, Chesapeake Bay."

The Boats of the Statira chased several American vessels into Virginia's Rappahannock River in March 1813, just over a month before the action for which this medal was awarded.

Another example of this clasp, awarded to Lieutenant William Hutchison, was sold by DNW in March 2014 for 18,400 pounds. Christie's offered a medal with a clasp for TRAFALGAR and the APRIL & MAY BOAT SERVICE 1813 clasp in their sale of October 2005. A similar medal with the APRIL & MAY BOAT SERVICE 1813 clasp, also said to be awarded to George Bishop, is held in the Fitzwilliam Museum Collection (Kenneth Douglas-Morris notes the presently offered medal with the 29 April clasp as "known" but does not mention the medal in the Fitzwilliam). The OMSA database of NGS medals notes that Bishop received two medals, one with each clasp. Admiral Cockburn's own medal, including the 29 APRIL BOAT SERVICE 1813 clasp and four others, is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Kenneth Douglas-Morris lists just five known examples of this clasp, including those in institutional collections.

Offered with a modern ribbon. To view all items from the Gem Collection, click here.

From the Gem Collection.

Earlier from Glendining's sale of April 1953, lot 29; Spink & Son, December 1965; our (Stack's) sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part VII, January 2005, lot 387.

Estimate: $15000 - $20000