Slag bij Culloden, ter ere van Willem, hertog van Cumberland 1746

This small silver medal was made by Martin Holtzhey to celebrate the Battle of Culloden. The medal's size belies its symbolic weight. Consider the labor involved: the mining and refining of the silver itself, followed by the skilled hand of the die cutter, who would have painstakingly incised the image in negative into a steel die. When struck, the metal would flow into every last detail, resulting in the crisp relief we see today. The neoclassical imagery promotes the Duke of Cumberland as a conquering hero, literally stamping out the Jacobite rebellion. But there's a tension here; medals like these, though often given as awards, were also commercial objects. Holtzhey no doubt hoped to profit from the Duke's victory. So, while the medal commemorates a specific historical event, it also speaks to broader social issues of labor, politics, and consumption. It challenges us to look beyond the medal's face value and consider the many hands and forces that brought it into being.