Watch List notes:

China - The Chinese Exhibition undated (1843) 45mm diameter in white metal by Thomas Halliday, Birmingham, BHM 2107. Obverse: CHUN AH-YOU OF THE CHINESE COLLECTIUON above bust of Ah-You three-quarters right in mandarin's robes and cap. Reverse: Legend in thirteen lines: THE CELEBRATED / CHINESE COLLECTION / [FROM HYDE PARK CORNER] / VISITED BY THE QUEEN / THE QUEEN DOWAGER AND / ALL THE ROYAL FAMILY / NOW EXHIBITING IN LIVERPOOL / "THERE IS NO EXHIBITION CAN COMPARE / "WITH IT IN ORIENTAL RANDEUR / "AND BEAUTIFUL ARRANGMENT" / THE TIMES! / AH YOU WILL ATTEND EACH / DAY AND EVENING. with 1848 inscribed below. 25.23 grammes, NEF and lustrous. The collection was formed by Nathan Dunn a Philadelphia-born China Trade merchant, and was first exhibited in the city in 1839. A report of the exhibition states: 'What increases the interest of the scene is a young Chinese, in full costume, who walks around the hall in full costume explaining the exhibits to the visitors in a most amiable manner that shows he is gratified in being useful'. No doubt this is Chun Ah-You, who accompanied the exhibition to London in 1841. The exhibition was initially exhibited in Hyde Park in a special pagoda, and was open to the public from April to June 1842. After some repairs to the lanterns which were now lit by gas, the exhibition re-opened in November 1843 until the end of the year. The collection then returned to the United States following Dunn's death in 1844, and later returned to England again in 1851 for the Great Exhibition. On 10 December 1851 Christie's auctioned 'The Celebrated Assemblage...collected by the late Nathan Dunn'

Estimate: 100-400 GBP