Stunning Pattern Una and the Lion

[SohoMint]

Often when Una and the Lion's are mentioned, you first imagine gold! For me, it will always be this gorgeous silver pattern piece I had the chance to photograph. Stunning rainbow toning, never seen anything like it.

[Rob]

Silver is always going to be better than gold for toning, due to the latter's relative resistance to chemical reaction. Toned gold is usually due to the copper mixed to produce the correct fineness. As you will be aware, left to its own devices and in a fairly clean environment, it will mostly turn black from silver oxide.

Establish what the chemicals responsible for the colour scheme were and you probably have a good indicator of London's atmospheric constituents since Victorian time, though the toning stripe that looks like Britannia let one go, is probably from the fabrics found in a mint set. Though as always, a lot depends on the angle of the shot relative to light source.

15 or 20 years ago, I posted a picture taken one sunny day when I had a tray of Soho patterns on the desk, and the various colours reflected onto the ceiling enabled me to individually identify all the pieces using colour alone. There was a mixture of copper, bronzed, gilt and silver, but all were distinctively coloured. I think I lost the image a few years ago when photobucket went dysfunctional, so will have to wait for the sun to make another appearance unless someone can locate it on the forum.

Having said all that, the one below is an oil painting in most lights and from most angles. Apologies to those who have already seen it.

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Rob

[SohoMint]

1 hour ago, Rob said:

Silver is always going to be better than gold for toning, due to the latter's relative resistance to chemical reaction. Toned gold is usually due to the copper mixed to produce the correct fineness. As you will be aware, left to its own devices and in a fairly clean environment, it will mostly turn black from silver oxide.

Establish what the chemicals responsible for the colour scheme were and you probably have a good indicator of London's atmospheric constituents since Victorian time, though the toning stripe that looks like Britannia let one go, is probably from the fabrics found in a mint set. Though as always, a lot depends on the angle of the shot relative to light source.

15 or 20 years ago, I posted a picture taken one sunny day when I had a tray of Soho patterns on the desk, and the various colours reflected onto the ceiling enabled me to individually identify all the pieces using colour alone. There was a mixture of copper, bronzed, gilt and silver, but all were distinctively coloured. I think I lost the image a few years ago when photobucket went dysfunctional, so will have to wait for the sun to make another appearance unless someone can locate it on the forum.

Having said all that, the one below is an oil painting in most lights and from most angles. Apologies to those who have already seen it.

 

WOW that is a gorgeous one!! I love Soho Mint pieces. And... a tray of patterns you say? 👀

[Rob]

9 hours ago, SohoMint said:

WOW that is a gorgeous one!! I love Soho Mint pieces. And... a tray of patterns you say? 👀

I used to collect halfpennies and shillings as denominations, so the accumulation of Soho patterns was inevitable. I have however tempered my habits and now only 'need' an example of each Peck die pairing in whatever metal, as opposed to all die pairings in all metals. 

[wlewisiii]

Heh. I just stick to one per year of my shillings and florins. That's enough to keep me poor 🤣

[Rob]

Only halfpennies as it is a legacy collection. Basically I couldn't bring myself to do too much pruning as they were (mostly) too nice to throw out. And I couldn't see much point in getting rid of the unique dogs, such as the attached. An R24 in Aluminium - one that should have existed based on Peck's groupings, but he failed to locate an example.

I suspect this was with a group of related aluminium die pairs at Spink when their building was bombed during WW2 and the corrosion is from water/electrolysis, as others within this group and struck in aluminium are similarly affected by water damage, albeit not as badly. See the Glens sale in the 60's or Selig's collection for other group examples. I picked it up on ebay in 2009 from the US - surprisingly nobody wanted it given its id but thankfully the condition eliminated the number chasers, so cheap as chips. . Happy days.

Pennies, farthings and twopences are satisfied by an example of each type of style, rather than the nuclear option. Funds are too limited to go ballistic on all fronts.