In ancient times, Olympic victors were rewarded not with gold, silver, and bronze – but with olive wreaths. It was not until 1896, the year of the first modern Olympiad, that the concept of Olympic medals was introduced. The first were designed by French sculptor Jules Clément Chaplain and featured a relief decoration of the face of Zeus. These prizes were minted by the Monnaie de Paris, the first in a succession of French manufacturers to produce Olympic medals. In fact, France held a monopoly on the manufacture of these awards until 1908 – when the family of English soccer star Howard Vaughton and their metalsmithing company, P. Vaughton and Son, stepped in.
The journey of P. Vaughton and Son (now known as Vaughtons and still based in Birmingham, England) to Olympic fame is a curious one, born out of the early years of British football (or soccer, as this writer will begrudgingly call it). Anyone who has seen Julian Fellowes’s The English Game miniseries is familiar with the fight to allow working class players into England’s first factory magnate-sponsored soccer teams. Gentlemen athletes fought to keep the sport to themselves, while talented working-class players like Fergus Suter outshone many veteran athletes, eventually earning their place in sports history.
Vaughtons was founded in 1819 on Little Hampton Street in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham. Howard Vaughton, the grandson of founder Philip Vaughton, was born in 1861 and always had a penchant for sport and adventure. By the time he was 30, he was well on his way to becoming a soccer star. To this day, Vaughton shares the record for most goals in a single game (five). The English Football League began a long relationship with Howard Vaughton’s family business, commissioning Vaughtons to produce their medals and trophies. Vaughtons still mints the League’s medals now.
But, record-setting soccer stardom was not enough for Howard Vaughton. After retiring from the sport some time around 1900, he became involved in swimming, boxing, skating, hockey, and cycling. He was beloved for his versatility– a jack of all trades playfully caricatured by the local Birmingham news. A cartoon of 1909 shows Vaughton ice skating in a jacket and hat, looming over a tiny judge in a flat cap. He was the ultimate gentleman-athlete, Birmingham’s Renaissance man. It was to the delight of fellow Brummies when he qualified for the 1908 London Olympics (in as many as four different sports).
The same year, Vaughtons had the honor of being the first non-French mint to produce Olympic medals. The awards were manufactured after a design by Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal, featuring women with laurel crowns on the front and St. George, the patron saint of England, on the reverse.
By 1910, Vaughtons was at the height of success. The company assembled a monumental display for the Royal Exhibition at Alexandra Palace, where over 300 medallions were presented in a spiral-design presentation frame. Each medal was produced with a custom die- cut, and the thousands of stamps produced over the years are still housed in the Vaughtons warehouse. A banner across the frame reads “Vaughtons Limited…Goldsmiths, silversmiths, medallists, makers of medals, badges, tokens, coins, shields, cups, die-sinkers, heraldic and civic insignia, [and] modellers.” Much like their namesake’s grandson, Vaughtons was a jack of all trades.
Yet, neither the 1908 Olympic medals nor the commissions for the Royal Palace exhibition hold the title for Vaughtons’ most famous production. That honor goes to the 1896 Football Association cup trophy, a sterling silver masterpiece made to replace the original FA Cup trophy, which had been stolen from its display case in an Aston shop in 1895. The Vaughtons trophy was awarded to soccer teams between 1896 and 1910 and has since passed hands many times. Most recently, it sold for almost $1 million at auction with Bonhams in 2020.
medallions is now displayed in Vaughtons’ company offices.
Vaughtons survives today in much the same form as it took at the turn of the last century. It is headed by Managing Director Nick Hobbis, a young, charismatic businessman with an encyclopedic knowledge of the company’s history (another Renaissance man). The company still produces sporting medals, though their factory floor (complete with 100-year-old die-cut presses) is mostly filled with badges for the luxury car maker Aston Martin (Vaughtons has made emblems for Aston Martin for 60 years). They also produce military regalia, from Victoria crosses to chain of office badges for the Zambian military.
The shop floor of this two-hundred-year-old firm is brimming with history, more alive now than ever. Colossal stamping machines, hand-operated by skilled engineers, churn out bronze plates. Those plates travel up a flight of stairs to be hand enameled by a small team of enamel painters who sit busily at desks overlooking the city. It is a humbling reminder of how rare it is to get a glimpse into this behind-the-scenes world of memorabilia and medallions.
Global pop culture is consumed by the giving and receiving of trophies and awards, the symbolic importance of these objects often superseding the craftsmanship in their making. The general public typically only ever sees these medals from a distance, but they are far more than just a symbol of victory to the athletes who earn one. Gold medal figure skater Tara Lipinski has frequently recounted going to sleep with her award around her neck the night after her triumphant performance. These medals will be worn, admired, rubbed, even bitten (an old trick to test the legitimacy of gold), by athletes who know them like the back of their hand. Take a look at olympics.com/en/paris-2024/the-games/the-brand/medals-design to peek at this year’s Paris Olympic medals, each incorporating a piece of iron from the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
