A STATIONERY PRINTING BLOCK FOR THE ARCTIC MEDAL, 1818-1855

Cast in bronze depicting Queen Victoria’s Arctic Medal, mounted on a wooden block, 65 x 40 x 25mm.

The medal is of an octagonal design, and was struck in silver. This printing block is for the obverse of this medal. It bears the effigy of Queen Victoria, unusually, with her hair flowing loose and tied by a ribbon with the inscription; ‘VICTORIA REGINA’.

The reverse depicts a three masted ship trapped in the ice with a sledge party in the foreground and the dates; ‘1818’ and; ‘1855’.

The Arctic Medal was instituted in 1857. The medal was awarded to the men of several Polar expeditions that sailed to the region between the years of 1818 and 1855, including those expeditions to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin and his crew, who were lost while looking for the Northwest Passage in or around 1847.