Lot 796
Boscobel, John Westwood (token...
Baldwin's - The Deane Collection - Part II | 0110
Auction: 25 May 2023 at 10:00 BST
£2,400
Description
Boscobel, John Westwood (token manufacturer) Halfpenny no date, Laureate bust of Charles II right, rev. An oak tree, edge WILLEY SNEDSHILL BERSHAM BRADLEY, 19mm/12.23gm (DH 1a), good Extremely Fine, trace of lustre with magnificent purple/yellow iridescent toning, Superb and very Rare ‘RR’.
After the Royalist defeat at Worcester in 1651, the final conflict in the English Civil War, Charles II (to be) fled to a Royalists house at Boscobel. When a Cromwellian search party arrived in the area looking for the Prince, Charles hid in a large oak tree in the grounds of the house. Fortunately for Charles, the roundheads were distracted by an owl flying out of the tree (indicating that up to this point the tree was undisturbed) and from this moment the oak tree became a Royalist icon and badge ‑ supporters of the Royalist cause would wear a sprig of oak to show their allegiance. Within sixty years the tree was thus stripped of all its branches and the present tree, grown from an acorn of the original, is now over 250 years old. This tree was hit by lightning in 2001 and battered by a great storm in 2010 and although it is still standing, is not in good shape and a third generation of Boscobel oak trees are now being grown from its acorns. John Westwood made this token with this popular subject matter to sell to collectors.
