Masterpieces of Art Series. 999 Silver Proof Coin with 16 Swarovski crystals. Issued by Cook Islands, as a part of very successful. Masterpieces of Art series, this 55 mm numismatic masterpiece is made of 3 Oz of pure 99.99% silver with inlaid 16 authentic Swarovski crystals. The coin’s reverse is dedicated to. With faithful reproduction of his magnificent painting. The legend of Lady Godiva’s nude ride was first recorded in the 13th century, when she took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as “Peeping Tom, ” disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass and is struck blind as a result. Colliers’ Lady Godiva was bequeathed by social reformer, Thomas Hancock Nunn. When he died in 1937, the painting was offered to the Corporation of Hampstead. He specified in his will that should his bequest be refused by Hampstead (presumably on grounds of propriety) the painting was then to be offered to Coventry. The painting now hangs in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in England. Obverse of the coin traditionally bears the portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. THE COIN IS IN MINT CONDITION AND COMES IN ALL ORIGINAL MINT PACKAGING. THE ACTUAL PICTURE OF THE COIN OFFERED IS PROVIDED. GOLDEN COLORED EDGE TONING. VISIBLE ON PROVIDED PICTURE. ALL THE COINS OF THIS SERIES. AND IS NOT A FLAW. IF YOU COME ACROSS ONE THAT DOES NOT HAVE THE TONING THEN KNOW THAT. THE COIN HAS BEEN. 93.3 (3 Oz). Proof with color and Swarovski crystals inlay. The Honorable John Maler Collier (27 January 1850 – 11 April 1934) was a leading English painter and an author. He painted in the Pre-Raphaelite style and was one of the most prominent portrait painters of his generation. Collier studied painting at the Munich Academy where he enrolled at the age of 25. He was from a talented and successful family: his grandfather, John Collier, was a Quaker merchant who became a Member of the Parliament; his father (first Lord Monkswell) also was a Member of the Parliament, Attorney General and, for many years, a full-time judge of the Privy Council, and a member of the Royal Society of British Artists; and John’s older brother (the second Lord Monkswell) was Under-Secretary of the State for War and Chairman of the London County Council. In due course, Collier became an integral part of the family of Thomas Henry Huxley PC, President of the Royal Society from 1883 to 1885 – he married two of Huxley’s daughters in succession and was “on terms of intimate friendship” with his son, the writer Leonard Huxley. Collier’s first wife, in 1879, was Marian (Mady) Huxley. She was a painter who studied, like her husband, at the Slade and exhibited at the Royal Academy among other places. After the birth of their only daughter, she suffered severe post-natal depression and was taken to Paris for treatment, where she contracted pneumonia and died in 1887. In 1889 Collier married Mady’s younger sister Ethel Huxley. Until the Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act in 1907 such a marriage was not possible in England, so the ceremony took place in Norway. Collier’s daughter by his first marriage, Joyce, was a portrait miniaturist, and a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters. By his second wife he had a daughter and a son, Sir Laurence Collier, who was the British Ambassador to Norway from 1941 to 1951. Collier died in 1934. His entry in the Dictionary of National Biography published. 1949 compares his work to that of Frank Holl because of its solemnity. This is only true, however, of his many portraits of distinguished old men. His portraits of younger men. And children, and his so-called “problem pictures” covering scenes of ordinary life, are often very bright and fresh. Strong and surprising sense of color. According to Geoffrey Ashton. Created a disconcerting verisimilitude in both mood and appearance. DON’T HESITATE TO ASK QUESTIONS AND PLEASE CHECK OUT MY OTHER LISTINGS! FOR CUSTOMERS IN UNITED STATES. EACH SALE COMES WITH UNCONDITIONAL 100% GUARANTEE OF THE QUALITY AND. IF THE COIN IS NOT AS DESCRIBED. SAME 100% GUARANTEE OF THE QUALITY AS FOR USA CUSTOMERS.