Exhibitions | Special Displays Victorian Style Wars: The Medal
in Nineteenth-Century Britain When Queen Victoria came to the
throne in 1837 a restrained Greek classical style was in
fashion, but this was soon challenged by the rise of a taste for
Gothic medievalism in the 1840s. Increasingly elaborate and
beautifully detailed medals used classical and Gothic ideas to
celebrate the achievements of Victoria’s British Empire, but in
the 1890s Art Nouveau and a taste for simplicity seemed to
represent a new start for the British medal and the decorative
arts in general. Tue 31 May 2011 to Sun 2 October 2011