When legendary “old time” collections of Latin American material such as Fonrobert (A. Weyl, 1878), Salbach (J. Schulman 1911), and Rosa (Peletti, 1925) were assembled and later dispersed, the military decorations contained therein were considered among the most important items in their respective groups, as can be confirmed by the
sale prices in those auctions. A further reflection of this perceived importance at the time is the lavishly produced – including unusually fine plates- and now very rare work “Numismatica, Independencia Americana” published by Alejandro Rosa in 1905, which is entirely devoted to them: clearly a labour of love, it was also indisputably a work to proudly display the importance of that collection.
While this work by Alejandro Rosa is very difficult to obtain, a more basic yet readily accessible reference is H. Giillingham’s “South American Decorations”, which has been reprinted and is entirely sufficient to grasp a general understanding of these historically significant and often extremely rare medals and decorations. The recent work by Ross and Stahl “From a Thankful Nation” is a very well produced volume and a welcome addition on the topic, featuring good quality pictures of several very rare items of this series.
In later years, the trend has shifted, and these decorations appear no longer in the numismatic limelight: this is partially misleading since mostly a result of their great rarity: most of these highly significant items are excessively rare to begin with, making them “uncollectible”. The trend has decidedly changed in recent years, beginning with the historical sale of the ANS’ holdings of these items by Morton and Eden roughly a decade ago and two major old South American collections becoming available in the past 5 years – including part of the Rosa collection. A few very rare and unusually well-pedigreed items are presently available through our company.
Chile War of Independence oval gold decoration medal for the battle of Maypo, Ross- Ch2, Gillingham p. 98-101, Medina pl. IV,no. 4 (in silver).
Overall attractive VF, obverse better with partial remaining luster, inscription on reverse a tad worn but clear. Awarded to officers for the battle of Maypo, one of the crucial episodes of the South American war of independence, and which effectively consolidated Chile’s independence.
Ex. O. Salbach collection (J. Schulman 2/1911, lot 400), the finest collection of South American War of Independence medals and decorations ever assembled and superbly pedigreed as such. Extremely rare in gold, missing in the Medina and Ross collections.
