St. James's Auctions
Auction 74 12-13 Apr 2023
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Mountaineering interest: Charterhouse School, silver prize medal, 1849, named to Charles Greenwood Floyd (1830-1903), 36.5mm., extremely fine; and an unrelated bronze ticket or pass to the Liverpool Royal Colosseum (c.1860) 32mm., very fine (2)
Charles Greenwood Floyd was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford. On August 12,1851, Floyd reached the summit of Mont Blanc with three other Oxford students and sixteen guides, in an expedition led by the journalist and entertainer, Albert Smith. It was Albert Smith's dramatic account of this ascent that was to make mountain climbing popular among the middle classes of Victorian England. Albert Smith, who owned the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, became a founder member of the Alpine Club. The other three Oxford students were the Hon. William Edward Sackville West and Francis Philips and George Nicholas Vansittart. Floyd, who married in 1880 was, from 1866, Rector at South Runcton in Norfolk. Whilst not the first ascent of Mont Blanc (that had been in 1786), this, thanks to Albert Smith, was certainly the most famous of the early climbs. The medal provides an extraordinary link with the expedition that pioneered the "Golden Age" of mountaineering.
Estimate: 100 - 150 GBP
Charles Greenwood Floyd was educated at Charterhouse School and Christ Church, Oxford. On August 12,1851, Floyd reached the summit of Mont Blanc with three other Oxford students and sixteen guides, in an expedition led by the journalist and entertainer, Albert Smith. It was Albert Smith's dramatic account of this ascent that was to make mountain climbing popular among the middle classes of Victorian England. Albert Smith, who owned the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, became a founder member of the Alpine Club. The other three Oxford students were the Hon. William Edward Sackville West and Francis Philips and George Nicholas Vansittart. Floyd, who married in 1880 was, from 1866, Rector at South Runcton in Norfolk. Whilst not the first ascent of Mont Blanc (that had been in 1786), this, thanks to Albert Smith, was certainly the most famous of the early climbs. The medal provides an extraordinary link with the expedition that pioneered the "Golden Age" of mountaineering.
Estimate: 100 - 150 GBP