Summary

An unissued specimen bronze prize medal of the Centennial International Exhibition featuring a bust of Queen Victoria facing left wearing crown and veil and a Victor's wreath of wattle and oak around the Southern Cross and the motto in Latin "To the deserving arts, distinguished honour". The 1888 Centennial International Exhibition, celebrating a century of Australian settlement, surpassed even the grand scale of the1880 Melbourne International Exhibition. It attracted over two million people, but the Victorian government had to spend £250 000 on it, ten times the amount estimated. The exhibition had a distinctively imperial focus, and a greater emphasis on culture than in 1880, particularly on music and painting. A choir of five thousand sang music old and new, and half a million people attended symphony concerts. There were over three thousand paintings on display, including works by artists like J.M.W. Turner and C. Lutyens. The Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens was lit inside and out by electric lights, claimed to be the largest installation of arc lighting in the world.

Physical Description

The bronze medal of the Centennial International Exhibition featuring a bust of Queen Victoria facing left wearing crown and veil and a Victor's wreath of wattle and oak around the Southern Cross and the motto in Latin "To the deserving arts, distinguished honour".

Obverse Description

Bust of Queen Victoria facing left wearing crown and veil ; around, CENTENNIAL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION MELBOURNE

Reverse Description

Around below wreath, MELBOURNE MINT MDCCCLXXXVIII STOKES AND MARTIN SC. within wreath around Southern Cross, ARTIBUS DIGNUS HONOR INSIGNIS

Edge Description

Plain

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