Summary

Issued: Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Gilt medal minted by Hafner and issued to commemorate the 27th anniversary of The Calligraphy Centre. The medal shows Terry Pepperell (the owner of the Centre and designer of the medal) as scribe and recalling the first medal of Cole's Book Arcade (1875) through use of a rainbow and an offer of writing pens and pencils, but replacing fern fronds with writing quills.

Cole's Book Arcade opened in the Bourke Street Mall in 1883, after earlier operating from other sites. It was a shop like no other, crammed with new and second-hand books and other wares, but with the atmosphere of a circus. Cole enticed customers of all ages with a menagerie and fernery, a band, a clockwork symphonion and other mechanical delights. Readers could sit in comfortable chairs, encouraged by a sign: 'Read for as Long as You Like - Nobody Asked to Buy'. The Arcade's proprietor, Edward William Cole, was optimist and idealist, believing passionately in the power of education and envisaged a world without borders, expounding his views in pamphlets and books. Cole died in 1918, still dreaming of a better future. Cole's Book Arcade, one of the wonders of 'marvellous Melbourne', closed in 1929.

Physical Description

An bronze medal (32 mm diameter) featuring a portrait of Terry Pepperell as scribe and recalling the medals of Cole's Book Arcade through use of a rainbow and an offer of writing pens and pencils, but replacing fern fronds with writing quills.

Obverse Description

Half-length portrait of Terry Pepperell facing left wearing cape and writing with quill (his initials LTP can be read) around on broad rim, The Calligraphy Centre * PEPPERELL PUBLICITY *

Reverse Description

Rainbow emerging from crossed quills and other writing materials; on rainbow, 27TH ANNIVERSARY 1989, below rainbow, 6 EASY / WRITING PENS / & 2 GOOD PENCILS / AT THE / CALLIGRAPHY CENTRE / 960 WHITEHORSE ROAD / BOX HILL VICTORIA / EST. 1962 below the ends of the rainbow the mint HAFNER and designer's initials LTP

Edge Description

Plain

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