Netherlands / Friesland Silver award medal 1898 Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw, Opmeer. - G.C. van Balen Blanken Jr EF

Netherlands – Silver award medal of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw, Opmeer and surroundings, 1898

Silver prize medal of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw, designed by J.P. Schouberg. The medal type dates from 1847 and was used for agricultural award purposes by the society and its regional departments.

Obverse: Crowned arms of Holland above the inscription HOLLANDSCHE MAATSCHAPPIJ VAN LANDBOUW 1847, surrounded by agricultural symbols: cornucopias, sheaves, branches and agricultural implements.

Reverse: Wreath above an engraved award inscription:

Afd: Opmeer en omstreken
1e Prijs
kleinste Haan en Hen
G.C. van Balen Blanken Jr
1898

Material: Silver
Diameter: 39 mm
Weight: 19.97 g
Reference: Dirks 663
Engraver / medallist: J.P. Schouberg
Condition: Very fine to extremely fine, attractively toned, with hairlines and minor marks as visible in the photos.

A particularly interesting personally engraved silver agricultural award medal, awarded in 1898 to G.C. van Balen Blanken Jr., the well-known physician from Spanbroek and an important figure in the agricultural and cultural history of West-Friesland. Van Balen Blanken was chairman of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw, department Opmeer and surroundings, and played a key role in bringing the major agricultural exhibition to Opmeer in 1898. He is also remembered as one of the founders of the Opmeer agricultural show tradition and as a leading promoter of West-Frisian cultural heritage.

This medal is therefore not only a silver award medal, but also a historically well-contextualised object connected with the early history of the Opmeer agricultural exhibitions and one of their most important organisers.

Historical context

The Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw was founded in 1847 and became one of the important agricultural organisations in the Netherlands. Its archive, preserved by the Nationaal Archief, documents the society’s many regional departments, correspondence, minutes, circulars, statistics and administrative records. This medal belongs to the society’s prize-medal tradition, in which awards were given at agricultural exhibitions, livestock shows and related competitions.

The medal was designed by J.P. Schouberg and is listed as Dirks 663. KZGW records this type as a prize medal of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw and refers to Dirks, Beschrijving der Nederlandsche of op Nederland betrekking hebbende penningen geslagen tussen 1813–1863, vol. 2, no. 663. The type was clearly used over a long period: Numismatische Kring Rotterdam notes that the design dates from 1847, while a known example was awarded in 1858.

The recipient, G.C. van Balen Blanken Jr., can be identified as Gerard Cornelis van Balen Blanken, born at Benningbroek on 8 September 1852 and deceased at Bovenkarspel on 3 July 1939. He was a physician in Spanbroek and became a highly active figure in West-Frisian public life. The Westfries Genootschap describes him as an “unremitting advocate” of West-Frisian folklore, culture and history.

For this medal, his agricultural role is especially important. Van Balen Blanken was chairman of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw, department Opmeer and surroundings, and is explicitly recorded as organiser of the large agricultural exhibition of 1898. Another biographical source states that he became chairman of the Opmeer department and succeeded in bringing the annual agricultural exhibition to Opmeer in 1898. This directly connects the inscription on the medal — “Afd: Opmeer en omstreken … 1898” — with a historically significant moment in the development of the Opmeer agricultural show tradition.

Van Balen Blanken’s importance did not stop with agriculture. He was also closely associated with the preservation of the traditional Dutch sport of kolf. In 1880 he founded the Spanbroek kolf society De Vier Eenen, and in 1885 he took the initiative for the foundation of the Nederlandsche Kolf Bond. Later in life he also helped found the Historisch Genootschap Oud West-Friesland, becoming its first chairman and a central figure in the preservation of regional history and culture.

The present medal is therefore a much more specific and historically meaningful object than a standard agricultural prize medal. It was awarded to a named and traceable recipient, in the year 1898, by the Opmeer and surroundings department of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Landbouw. The recipient was not merely a prize winner, but also one of the key figures behind the agricultural exhibition tradition in Opmeer and a major cultural figure in West-Friesland.

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