GEORGE WILLIAM DE SAULLES

"Engraver to the Royal Mint" - 1893 to 1903

This picture (from an unknown newspaper cutting) courtesy of the Royal Mint Museum.

Biography

	GEORGE WILLIAM DE SAULLES (1862-1903), was born on 4
	February 1862 at Villa Street, Aston Manor, Birmingham. His
	grandfather emigrated from Switzerland in the early 19th
	Century, but his father, William Henry De Saulles, was then
	settled in Birmingham as a glass merchant. At an early age
	he began his art training at the Birmingham School of Art,
	under the master, Mr. Taylor, and there he gained several
	prizes. He was apprenticed to Mr. Wilcox, a die-sinker in
	Birmingham, under whom he had varied practice, which
	included the execution of large labels for Manchester goods,
	at that time not inartistic in design. He moved to London in
	1884, and worked for Mr. John H. Pinches (d.1905), medallist
	and die-engraver, then in Oxenden Street, Haymarket. In 1888
	he returned to Birmingham and worked for the similar
	enterprises of Joseph Moore (1817-1892), the medallist. 

	During 1892 De Saulles was employed in London at the Royal
	Mint. He was an obvious choice for the post of Chief
	Engraver at the Royal Mint, succeeding Leonard Charles Wyon
	who died that year, and he executed the dies, to the design
	of Thomas Brock, for the issue of the coinage of the
	following year; he also designed and executed the coinage
	for Edward VII in 1902. In January 1893 he was gazetted
	'engraver to the mint', (Ann report of Deputy Master of the
	Mint for 1893, p.30), and from that time till his death was
	actively engaged in the production of dies for English and
	colonial coins and for official medals. He was a skilful
	craftsman who worked with great rapidity, and he designed,
	modelled and engraved most of his dies. He was in some
	degree influenced by the French school of Oscar Roty and
	Chaplain, but in his official work there was no great scope
	for innovation and the play of fancy. He was a man of kindly
	disposition, entirely devoted to his craft. He was engaged
	in the preparation of the new seal of Edward VII when he
	died at Chiswick, after a few days' illness, on 21 July
	1903. He was buried in Chiswick churchyard. He married Myra
	Hill in June 1884 but had no children. 

	His medallic work between 1894 and 1903 includes at least
	thirty medals and three plaques, among which may be
	mentioned the following medals: Horace Seymour (London, BM);
	the Jubilee medal, 1897; Sir George Buchanan (Royal Society
	Medal), 1894; Professor Stokes, 1899; Samuel Carnegie, 1901;
	coronation medal of Edward VII, 1902 (gold, silver and
	bronze); Royal Society of British Architects, 1902; National
	Lifeboat Institution, 1903; the South Africa medal,
	l899-l902; the Ashanti medal, 1900; the Transport Service
	medal, 1902. A fuller list is given by J. H. Pinches in the
	'Numismatic Chronicle,' 1903 pp. 312, 313, and by Hocking,
	'Catalogue of Coins in Royal Mint,' ii. p.301. He executed
	the dies for the new issue of coins of Queen Victoria in
	1893, designed by Thomas Brock. He designed the Britannia
	reverse of the English bronze coins of 1895, and the issue
	of English coins made in 1902 after the accession of Edward
	VII. His signature on the coins is 'DES' He also designed
	and engraved the dies for various colonial coins, such as
	the British East Africa copper coins, 1897; the British
	Honduras coins 1894; the British dollar for India, 1895, and
	the Straits Settlements dollar, 1903. He made the last great
	seal of Queen Victoria (1899), and many designs for official
	seals for the colonies. At the time of his death he was
	preparing the models for the great seals of the United
	Kingdom and those of Ireland and Scotland, subsequently
	executed by F. Bowcher. He was an exhibitor at the Royal
	Academy, 1898-1903. 

	[memoir in Numismatic Chronicle, 1903, pp.311-313, by Mr.
	John H. Pinches and private information supplied by him;
	Hocking's Catalogue of Coins in Royal Mint 2 vols. 1906-10;
	Forrer's Biog. Dict. of Medallists, 1904; Annual Reports of
	Deputy-Master of the Mint.] 

The family has in its possession some Watercolours painted by George William De Saulles.
(Click here to view)

A web search for "G W De Saulles" on Google will bring up many references to his work.
For more information on coins in general visit Tony Clayton's UK coins web site.

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