Triton XVI, Lot: 1500. Estimate $1500. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Regno delle Due Sicilie. Gioacchino Napoleone Murat. 1808-1815. Æ Medal (61mm, 101.65 g, 12h). Commemorating the capture of Capri from Britain. By L. Jaley. Dually dated 1808 and 1811. GIOACCHINO NAPOLÉONE RE DELLE DUE SICILIE., uniformed bust left / AUUENIMENTO (sic) AL REGNO PRESA DI CAPRI 1808, the island of Capri with Sicilian fleet around. Bramsen 755; Julius 1942. Near EF, brown surfaces, numerous die breaks on reverse.

The island of Capri fell into British hands in 1806 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. The occupiers, expecting a swift counterattack, hurriedly fortified the island. Yet no attack came. Two years passed before Franco-Neapolitan forces under general Jean Maximilien Lamarque at last set out to assail the British defenses. In the time the British were on the island, they had allowed their alertness to lapse, and the invaders were able to scale the cliffs and seize the heights of Anacapri. Combined barages from gun emplacements on the heights and blockading ships soon forced the garrison to capitulate.