Moord op sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, vrederechter in Engeland 1678

This silver medal, commemorating the murder of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, was made around 1678 by George Bower. The cool, hard metal lends an air of stark memorialization. The process of die-striking the silver under immense pressure, would have been a highly skilled, repetitive task. Note the sharp relief of the portraits and lettering: this precision speaks to the expertise of the die cutter, who would have employed specialized tools to incise the design in reverse onto hardened steel. The sheen of the silver, cold to the touch, reinforces the severity of the image. Medals like this served as portable mementos, circulating political messages in a tangible form. The relative reproducibility of die-striking meant that Bower’s medals could reach a wide audience. The precious metal implies the value placed on Godfrey's life. Considering the material and making allows us to see this medal not just as a historical artifact, but as a product of skilled labor and political messaging, blurring the lines between art, craft, and propaganda.