An Important Presentation Medal Depicting Revolutionary War Naval Hero Stephen Decatur and Family, Philadelphia, circa 1783.
Philadelphia: Henry Dawkins, 1783.
Engraved silver plate, oval, 73 x 62 mm. The obverse features a ‘conversation piece’ of the Stephen Decatur family within a room with a window view of two ships at anchor on the Philadelphia waterfront and bears the following dedication below: “To Mrs. Ann Decatur. This Design; is Inscribed by Her Obt. Humb. Servt. H. Dawkins.” Sitters are depicted from L-R as follows: Captain Stephen Decatur (1752-1808) is embraced by his daughter Ann (1776-1819), while his eldest son and future naval hero Stephen Jr. (1779-1820) looks upon his infant brother James Bruce (1782-1804) cradled in the lap of their mother, Ann Pine Decatur (1755-1812). The scene commemorates the safe return of Ann’s husband--one of Philadelphia’s most successful and wealthy privateers--from his last wartime cruise. Decatur is seen pointing towards his ship, The Rising Sun and her prize, the British brig Grace, which he brought into port on November 19, 1782. The opposite face bears “The Arms of the Ancient Family of Decatur” with rococo scrollwork edging, superimposed over crossed anchors on a brickwork ground, all reverse-engraved in imitation of a printer’s plate (flipped in image above).
Dawkins works on paper are rare and highly prized by collectors and this engraved plate is an even scarcer example of his work as a silversmith. It appears to have been executed as a companion piece to an unsigned medallion bearing a similar coat of arms on the reverse, but with a portrait of his former warship on verso with the inscription “Success to the Royal Louis.” That medal was commissioned before the unlucky second voyage of the Royal Louis in the Fall of 1781, during which she was captured. The rediscovery of this handsome, signed work by Dawkins allows for proper attribution of the unsigned 1781 medal (now in the collections of the Decatur House Museum) to the hands of this most talented of early American engravers. Near Fine. Item #106