John Craig Parkes, Medallist

(b.1821, d.1901)

Medallist

From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913

Son of Isaac Parkes (q.v.), was born in Dublin in 1821. He assisted his father in his works and afterwards continued the business. He held the appointment of Medallist to the Royal Dublin Society and executed a number of medals. He eventually found it more profitable to develop a trade as a wholesale ironmonger, a business still carried on by his family, and he gradually abandoned die-sinking. He died on 1st February, 1901, and was buried on the 5th at Mount Jerome.

The following medals were issued and signed by him:

Visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1861. The obverse is struck from Isaac Parkes's old die of 1849.

Prince of Wales' Visit, 1861; signed I. C. P.

Orange Medal, with bust of William III.

Orange Medal, similar; for the Royal Augheronian Orange Lodge.

Orange Medal, obverse, statue of William III; reverse, an open Bible within a triangle on the sides of which are inscribed Order, Love, Truth.

Royal Dublin Society's Prize Medal. Similar to Mossop's.

St. Peter's College, Carlow; copied from one by Woodhouse.

Wesleyan Connexional School.

Daniel O'Connell; medallet.

Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine and Portrush Junction Railway, Free ticket, 1855.

St. Bride's and St. Werburgh's Band of Hope Temperance Union, Swift's Alley.

Louth Farming Society prize medal, 1868.

Cashel Union Agricultural Society.

Cashel Art and Industrial Exhibition, 1864; a small medal with view of the Cathedral of Cashel.

A full description of medals by Isaac and John C. Parkes is given in the "Kilkenny Archaeological Society's Journal" for 1895.

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