Love token
Maker & role
Matthew Boulton (b.1728, d.1809), Designer; Cornelius Donovan, Engraver
Production date
1797
1825
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Object detail
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 0.2 x Diam: 3.6cm (H: 2 x Diam: 36mm)
Signature & marks
"EWN / CD" engraved within a hart on the obverse.
"THIS IS A / TOKEN FROM / MY HAND FOR I AM / GOING TO / VAN DIEMANS [sic] / 18 LAND 25", engraved on the reverse.
"THIS IS A / TOKEN FROM / MY HAND FOR I AM / GOING TO / VAN DIEMANS [sic] / 18 LAND 25", engraved on the reverse.
Credit line
Gift, Mrs Peggy Thomson, 2009
Hyde Park Barracks Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Hyde Park Barracks Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Convict love token, 1825
Description
This convict love token was inscribed in 1825 and made from a defaced 1797 Cartwheel Penny. It features an engraved design of two kissing lovebirds above a heart with the initials "EWN / CD", floral patterns and a double row of curved lines. The reverse is engraved with an inscription: "THIS IS A / TOKEN FROM / MY HAND FOR I AM / GOING TO / VAN DIEMANS [sic] / 18 LAND 25".
Sometime in early 1825, a convicted man, confined to a hulk on the River Thames and awaiting transportation to the Australian colonies, engraved a poignant personal message on a smoothed-down 1797 English ‘cartwheel’ penny. On one side two lovebirds flutter above a heart drawn around the paired initials ‘EWN / CD’. The reverse is inscribed: THIS IS A TOKEN FROM MY HAND FOR I AM GOING TO VAN DIEMANS LAND 1825. The token was probably made by Cornelius Donovan, a young man convicted at the Old Bailey in December 1824 for stealing 18lbs of sewing cotton from a London haberdasher. He was sentenced to transportation for 7 years and spent four months on board the hulk Bellerophon before being transferred to the convict ship Medina on 6 April 1825, along with 178 other male convicts. The Medina left Sheerness Downs, off the coast of Kent in the English Channel, on 19 April 1825 and arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 8 September 1825. Cornelius Donovan was 19 years old.
Sometime in early 1825, a convicted man, confined to a hulk on the River Thames and awaiting transportation to the Australian colonies, engraved a poignant personal message on a smoothed-down 1797 English ‘cartwheel’ penny. On one side two lovebirds flutter above a heart drawn around the paired initials ‘EWN / CD’. The reverse is inscribed: THIS IS A TOKEN FROM MY HAND FOR I AM GOING TO VAN DIEMANS LAND 1825. The token was probably made by Cornelius Donovan, a young man convicted at the Old Bailey in December 1824 for stealing 18lbs of sewing cotton from a London haberdasher. He was sentenced to transportation for 7 years and spent four months on board the hulk Bellerophon before being transferred to the convict ship Medina on 6 April 1825, along with 178 other male convicts. The Medina left Sheerness Downs, off the coast of Kent in the English Channel, on 19 April 1825 and arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 8 September 1825. Cornelius Donovan was 19 years old.
Accession number
HPB2009/2
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