History of the Company
The history of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City of London, founded in 1327.
Art Medals
The contemporary Art Medal Collection, which numbers today over 300 items, began in 1973.
In an age of the limited edition, the Company took on the important role of promoting the art medal form in Britain back to its Italian Renaissance status. The first international major art medal exhibition at Goldsmiths’ Hall opened in July 1973 called ‘Medals Today’ with 151 exhibits from Britain, France, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, Holland, Italy and Switzerland.
Commissioning Medals
The success of this exhibition ensured the Company’s support of art medallists. The Company’s art medal collection continues to encourage rising star medallic artists through commissions, through advice to outside patrons, and through the vibrant process of commissioning contemporary artists to make medals. The Company’s financial sponsorship of supportive organisations, such as the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of British Sculptors and the British Art Medal Society, helps to raise the public profile of innovative medallic art.
In 1990, the Company created a scheme that no other organisation in the country had done before: each year a medallist would be invited to design a medal to commemorate the retiring Prime Warden of the Company, the obverse to show the portrait and year of office, the reverse an apposite theme.
Commissioned to commemorate Prime Warden Mr. Martin Drury, designed by Ian Rank Broadley (2005)
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