The Siebe Medals

by Nick Baker

Reproduced from Historical Diving Times Issue 18 (Spring 1997)

BATTLE HONOURS OF CORPORATE SUCCESS

It was fashionable during the 19th and early 20th century to award medals at trade exhibitions as acknowledgments of achievement. Naturally, companies used these awards in their advertising, with proud boasts of the number and types obtained adorning catalogues and letterheads, together with illustrations of the more prestigious ones. They were the 'battle honours' of commercial success.Siebe Gorman was no exception and towards the end of the 19th century they began to list their awards in corporate literature.

Of course, quantity as well as quality was important and every company sought to associate itself with as many achievements as possible. In this Siebe Gorman held a formidable advantage, having inherited a number of medals from its founder, Augustus Siebe: one dating back to the period before his emigration to England, others to the formative years of the company and especially to the early manufacture of diving apparatus.During the second half of the 19th century Augustus Siebe and Siebe Gorman received over 20 awards from exhibitions in eight countries.

Between 1900 and 1938 they collected ten more.It is impossible to say how these medals would originally have been kept, although many bear the (unfortunate) marks of having been polished and mounted. At some time, probably in the early 20th century, and almost certainly on the instruction of the Managing Director (later Chief Executive) Sir Robert Davis, the medals were placed in an eight-sided glass fronted case, to which additions continued to be made until 1955.About 1900 and probably before 1904, a set of castings was made. This enabled both obverse and reverse of each piece to be displayed at the same time, and these were also case mounted.Presumably the originals were kept on Siebe Gorman premises, while the facsimiles would have been used for exhibition purposes.

Once again, it is Sir Robert Davis whom we must thank for the survival of both cases, as they were moved on his orders to the new Chessington works about 1939, thus saving them from destruction in the London blitz. The cases were taken to the Siebe Gorman factory at Cwmbran in the early 1970s and placed in the museum there, and the originals are now in the keeping of Siebe PLC.In the 1960s Siebe took over their long-standing rivals Heinke, and the two companies were merged.

Previous Heinke catalogues show that they too had received awards, and several, although by no means all of the medals associated with them were transferred to the Siebe Gorman museum.It seems that the surviving Heinke medals, unlike those of Siebe Gorman, have never been displayed on a board, or indeed polished - most remain in their original presentation cases. Whilst this has in general preserved the surviving medals in almost perfect condition, this same portability has inevitably resulted in a reduction in the numbers which survive. In contrast, it would appear that only two Siebe Gorman medals are known to have gone missing, and a copy of both are still represented in the facsimile case.

The medals held by Siebe reflect the long history of the company, the diversity of its manufacturing, and the individual engineers and entrepreneurs associated with it. The addition of the Heinke medals adds further weight to the collection. Together they provide what must be one of the world's most significant grouping of corporate exhibition medals.The diversity and range of the medals, which span over 150 years and encompass ten countries, provide a special insight into 19th and early 20th century commerce, manufacturing and design. Many are superb examples of the several art forms which reached their peak during this period, each medal variously combining allegoric representations of art, science, learning and labour, with portraits and symbols of national and imperial power.

As icons of their age these medals are outstanding. As items of historical, corporate and social significance they are of extreme importance. The collection as a whole reflects in unique fashion a significant aspect of manufacturing history - and that of the Siebe Company in particular - which is probably without parallel.