Order of Merit, Civil Division, Edward VII issue, in gold and enamels, by Collingwood, 46 Conduit Street, unnumbered, awarded to Wallace on 9 November 1908, virtually as made , in fitted case of issue; together with Royal Society, The Copley Medal, the official duplicate in silver of the gold medal awarded to Wallace (see preceding lot), obv., Pallas seated with symbols of learning, embracing Nature and holding wreath in her outstretched hand, die-struck naming in exergue a. russell wallace, f.r.s. / 30 nov: 1908, rev., helmeted and supported arms, motto nullus in verba. on scroll below, edge plain, 43mm (Eimer 540), mint state, in fitted case of issue (2) Having received a dispensation from being personally invested by the King, Wallace received his Order of Merit insignia at home in Dorset from the Secretary and Registrar of the Order, Colonel Henry Legge, a very pleasant jolly kind of man. Wallace wrote to his son Will on 17th December, describing the comfortable ceremony and giving a detailed description and drawing of the badge itself. A scanned copy of the original Warrant appointing Wallace, as Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the Land Nationalisation Society, a Member of the Order of Merit, can be viewed online. For the silver Copley Medal, awarded On the ground of the great value of his numerous contributions to natural history, and of the part he took in working out the theory of the origin of species by natural selection, see footnote to the preceding lot.

Estimate: GBP 12000-15000