1648 Charles I Oxford Memorial Medal - THE EIMER PLATE MEDAL

The Oxford Memorial, 1648, a cast and chased gilt medal, unsigned, altar inscribed p.m. acad. oxon., dividing date, rev. deo ecclesiæ, principi victima in four lines across field,  (MI I, 348/205; E 165 [this medal)

An attractive example with original gilding, extremely fine and one of the finest known examples, this medal is used as the illustrated example in British Commemorative Medals and their values by C. Eimer.

Provenance 

Morton & Eden Auction, 20-21 May, 2003 (lot 1160).

The Christopher Foley Collection of Early English Medals, Woolley & Wallis 16 Oct 2014, lot 298

** In the November 2022 Dr Jerome Platt sale of 17th century medals at Noonan's, a silver specimen of this medal (lot 48) sold for £2,500 including the buyers premium

This medal was presented to members of the academic community of Oxford who suffered at the hands of the Parliamentarians. Oxford was the principal city of Charles I and his army for four years of the Civil War, despite the city falling to the Parliamentarians the city’s occupants remained supporters of the Royalist cause which led to the dismissal of many academics who refused to denounce the king. The obverse legend of the medal is an abbreviation of ‘In pious memory of Charles I, Oxford University’ and the reverse translates as ‘A sacrifice for God, the Church and the Prince.’