BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN. REWARD OF MERIT BRONZE MEDAL, 1777

GERMAN / TOWN / OCTr. 4. 1777, in three lines, within wreath; engraved above inscription, 40 Rgt., rev., aerial view of the battle, a battery of cannon firing on Cliveden; engraved above, REWARD OF MERIT,  in exergue, I.MILTON.F, 44.4 mm; pierced for suspension, the edge somewhat battered, otherwise fine

Glendining, 17 April 1964, lot 383 — John J. Ford Collection (Stack’s, 23 May 2006, lot 164)

Betts 556; Tancred 332; Eimer 772

GERMAN / TOWN / OCTr. 4. 1777, in three lines, within wreath; engraved above inscription, 40 Rgt., rev., aerial view of the battle, a battery of cannon firing on Cliveden; engraved above, REWARD OF MERIT, in exergue, I.MILTON.F, 44.4 mm, pierced for suspension, the edge somewhat battered, otherwise fine
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This is an English medal commemorating the occupation and defense of Benjamin Chew’s house Cliveden in Germantown, Pennsylvania, by troops of the 40th British Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Musgrave. Under withering fire, the regiment resisted Washington’s troops which ultimately withdrew; the interior of the house was later described by a Hessian officer “as looking like an abbatoir.”  Chew (1722–1810) was a close friend of Washington whose 6th daughter, Harriet, married Charles Carroll of Homewood (the son of the last surviving signer of the Declaration, Charles Carroll of Carrollton).  The dies for the medal were cut by John Milton, who became the third engraver of the Royal Mint. Examples of the medal exist in both silver and bronze; the latter intended for enlisted men, some are engraved, as here, but more often not. The medals were struck into the nineteenth century as a regimental award medal, and this medal may date from that period.