295, Lot: 159. Estimate $100. Sold for $550. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

temp. HANOVER. Maria Clementina Sobieska. As Queen-consort in pretence, 1719-1735. Æ Medal (48mm, 53.36 g, 12h). Escape of Princess Clementina from Innsbruck. By O. Hamerani. Dated 1719 in Roman numerls. CLEMENTINA · M · BRITAN · FR · ET · HIB · REGINA ·, diademed, ermine-mantled, and draped bust left / FORTVNAM · CAVSAMQVE · SEQVOR, Maria Clementina hurriedly departing in carriage left; Rome at a distance; in two lines in exergue, DECEPTIS · CVSTODIBVS ·/·MDCCXIX ·. MI 444/49; Eimer 484; Woolf 36:1. Good VF, brown surfaces.

On July 23, 1718, Maria, the granddaughter of Polish king Jan III Sobieski, was betrothed to James Stuart, the Old Pretender. George I, on learning of the marriage, immediately set to foiling his rival’s plans. The reigning king urged Emperor Charles VI to intercept the bride, who was proceeding with her retinue to Bologna. Despite family ties with Maria, Charles complied, and the girl was imprisoned in Innsbruck Castle. James sent his agent, Charles Wogan, to her rescue. By replacing Maria with a maid and abandoning most of her entourage, Wogan and Maria managed to escape the castle. When she at last arrived in Bologna on 22 May 1719, James was away in Spain. The couple was married by proxy. Following James’ return, the couple lived for some time in Rome, under the protection of the Pope, on whose order this medal was supposedly struck.