CHINA: AE medal, 1848, BHM-2320, 45mm, bronze medal by Thomas Halliday "Voyage of the Junk Keying", port broadside view of the junk, mainsail set, THE CHINESE JUNK KEYING / CAPTAIN KELLETT above, in exergue: EXTREME BREADTH 35 FEET / BURDEN 750 TONS / DEPTH OF HOLD 16 FEET // THIS REMARKABLE / VESSEL IS A JUNK OF THE / LARGEST CLASS, AND IS THE / FIRST SHIP CONSTRUCTED BY THE / CHINESE WHICH HAS REACHED EUROPE, / OR EVEN ROUNDED THE CAPE / OF GOOD HOPE. / THIS JUNK WAS PURCHASED / AUGUST 1846, AT CANTON, BY A FEW / ENTERPRISING ENGLISHMEN. / SHE SAILED FROM HONG KONG 6TH / DECEMBER 1846 ROUNDED THE / CAPE 31ST MARCH 1847 ARRIVED / IN ENGLAND 27TH MARCH, / 1848, light rim bumps, AU. This medal commemorated the first Chinese Junk boat to sail from China to England. The Keying was a three-masted, 800-ton Foochow Chinese trading junk which sailed from Hong Kong, China in 1846 around the Cape of Good Hope, first to New York and Boston in the United States and then to Britain in 1848. These large bronze medals are only very rarely encountered.
