Netherlands: Baron van Imhoff Reception at the Cape |
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| Form: | Circular | ||||||||
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| By: | Martin Holzhey | ||||||||
| Date: | 1743 | ||||||||
| Ref: |
AM2: 2; Laidlaw: 1240; |
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| Variations: |
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| Edge: |
Plain. |
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| Obverse: |
Bust of van Imhoff in long-haired wig, right. Legend: "GVST. GVIL. LIB. BAR. AB IMHOFF GVB. GEN. IND. OR. F. R:" Signed at the foot: "M.HOLTZHT. FEC." |
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| Reverse: |
Crowned Holandia seated on plinth: "VOC" looking left towards sea. Right hand holding scales, left holding upright sword with wreath at tip (arms of Batavia). Regalia on lap. Anchor resting on her right. Rays of sunshine emerging from clouds upper left. Legend above: "SPIES MELIORVM TEMPORVM (hope for better times)". Exergue: "MDCCXLIII". |
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| Notes: |
Gustaaf Willem, Baron van Imhoff (1705 – 1750) was a Dutch colonial administrator for the Dutch East India Company. He served as Governor of Ceylon from 1736 to 1740 and as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from 1743 until his death in 1750. Imhoff Medal 1743 (copied from Africana Curiosities,edited by Anna H. Smith) 26 January 1743 was a great day for the colonists at the Cape. All the ships in Table Bay were gaily dressed with flags and pennants and from early morning people from Stellenbosch, Drakenstein and Roodezand began to converge on the town in order to join in the celebrations, for on this day the new Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies was to be inaugurated. It was the first time that so important an event had taken place on Cape soil, and all the pomp and ceremony of which the settlement was capable was provided. (Krom, N.J. Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff, Amsterdam, Van Kampen, 1941, p98.) For Baron Gustaf Willem van Imhoff, the new Governor-General, then thirty-eight years of age, it was also a great day for more than one reason. Two years earlier, when he was Governor of Ceylon and a member of the Council of India, he had passed through the Cape in deep disgrace after his arbitrary arrest and deportation by the then Governor-General Valckenier. The inauguration day would therefore reinstate him in the eyes of the Kapenaars. He proved to be one of the ablest men ever to fill that high office. The ceremonies ended with a banquet at the end of which a silver medal was presented to each of the guests (Van Loon: Beschryving van Nederlandsche Historie-Penningen, 1827, vol. 3, p l 70 -1). The Governor-General's head appears on the obverse, with his name and office around. On the reverse is a female figure representing the Dutch East India Company, similar to that on the 1702 centenary medal but holding a pair of scales in her right hand. An anchor leans against her and the VOC monogram appears on the seat. A Latin legend meaning Hope of better times gives point to the rays of the sun emerging from obscuring clouds. This and the scales are symbolised references to the troubles that had beset the Company during the rule of Imhoff 's predecessor Valckenier. The Africana Museum has two versions of this medal in which the obverses are different dies which show slight differences in the modelling of the bust and the placing of the artist's name in relation to the bust. The medallist was Martin Holtzhey (1697 -1764}, Master of the Mint at Amsterdam, an excellent medallist, responsible for a great number of portrait medals, according to Forrer's Biographical Dictionary of Medallists. According to the Koninklijk Kabinet van Munten, Penningen en Gesnede Stenen, 's-Gravenhage, this medal was also sold by Holtzhey to collectors. Although it is not expressly stated in the sources available in South Africa, it is probable that Van Imhoff ordered the medal at his own expense, as he had ordered another medal from Holtzhey in 1742 at his own cost. This 1742 medal is described by H. B. Zuck in Africana Notes and News, vol. 19, p338. It was ordered to celebrate Van Imhoff 's appointment as Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The number was limited as they were intended for presentation to a few dignitaries and the dies were never used again, according to Holtzhey's Catalogue of 1755. A similar but smaller medal (49 mm compared with 75 mm} with much abbreviated legend was struck by Holtzhey and sold to collectors for his own gain. |
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