"The rarest medal I have ever had the privilege to offer up and sell" said Martin Lambert fine art auctioneer with Tayler and Fletcherbased in Bourton-on-the-Water.

The comment was as regards lot 260, as it turned out an extremely rare early 19th century naval silver general service medal awarded to George Augustus Schultz Lieut. R.N.

The rarity came in the form of the clasp that the medal bore "Nassau 22 March 1808".

Originally commissioned in 1775, the Holsteen was a 60 gun ship of the line in the Royal Dano-Norwegan Navy and was captured by the British Royal Navy in the Battle at Copenhagen Rhodes on April 2, 1801 and subsequently renamed HMS Holsteen and then HMS Nassau.

On April 12 1801, the British sent Holsteen back to Britain as she was the only one of the ships of the line that the British chose to keep and between March and September 1805, Perry and Co, Blackwell repaired her at a cost of £22,022 and she was renamed Nassau and commissioned in September under captain Robert Campbell for the North Sea.

The fascinating history that ensued with this vessel is certainly worth reading and researching and it is fair to say that she saw more than her fair share of action and was involved in the capture of a number of hostile ships, one such event being on March 22, 1808 when the Nassau and the 64 gun Stately destroyed the last Danish ship of the line 'Prins Christian Frederik' at Grenaa, of the East Jutland coast in the battle at Zealand Point.

The battle cost Nassau one man killed, one man missing and sixteen men wounded.

In 1847, the admiralty awarded the naval general service medal with clasps "Stately 22 March 1808" and "Nassau 22 March 1808", to any still surviving crew members of those vessels that chose to claim them.

It is recorded as a statement of fact on the medal roll that only 31 men claimed the medal with the Nassau 22 March 1808 clasp.

Bidding in the room started hesitantly as a bank of no less than five telephones awaited in the wings to compete for the prize, sadly though, all of the telephone bidders and assembled bidders were disappointed as the live global internet bidding screen flashed yet one further bid to top any bids that the auctioneer already had and this culminated in the magnificent final hammer price of no less than £17,000 tendered by a major London medal dealer, no doubt realising the extreme rarity of the item offered.

To read the complete article, see:
Incredibly rare medal thrills auctioneers Tayler and Fletcher (www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/14628075.Incredibly_rare
_medal_thrills_auctioneers_Tayler_and_Fletcher/)