1789 British Conder not Condor PENNY token Warwickshire 13 BOXING Isaac Perrins

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

1789 British Conder (as in James Conder, the author of the original standard reference for the series) - not Condor (which is a bird) penny token. Dalton & Hamer (the modern standard reference) Warwickshire 13 Isaac Perrins This piece commemorates the boxing battle of Perrins vs. Thomas Johnson. This is a quite nice, hefty token. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Isaac Perrins was an English bareknuckle prizefighter and 18th-century engineer. A man reputed to possess prodigious strength but a mild manner, he fought and lost one of the most notorious boxing matches of the era, a physically mismatched contest against the English Champion Tom Johnson . Such was the mismatch that Perrins was described as Hercules fighting a boy.During the period when he was prizefighting Perrins worked for Boulton and Watt , manufacturers of steam engines, based at their Soho Foundry , Birmingham , but also travelled around the country and at times acted as an informant on people who were thought to have breached his employer's patents . In the later years of his life he also ran a public house in Manchester and undertook engineering work on his own account. He was appointed to lead the Manchester fire brigade in 1799, and died a little over 12 months later in the performance of his duties.The Perrins – Johnson fight took place at Banbury on 22 October 1789 and was billed as a battle between Birmingham and London as well as for the English Championship. The venue had been intended to be Newmarket during a race meeting but permission could not be obtained. [11 ] The two men were around the same age but physically very different. [12 ] Perrins stood 6' 2" (1.88 m) tall and weighed 238 pounds (108 kg), while Johnson was 5' 10" (1.78 m) [12 ] and weighed 196 pounds (89 kg). It was claimed that Perrins had lifted 896 pounds (406 kg) of iron with ease, [13 ] and he was "universally allowed to possess much skill and excellent bottom". [11 ] That is, it was acknowledged that he was skillful and courageous. The physical mismatch was later described as a fight between Hercules, in the form of Perrins, and a boy. [14 ]The first five minutes of competition saw neither man strike a blow and then when Perrins tried to make contact Johnson dodged and felled Perrins in return. Although Perrins recovered to hold the upper hand in the first few rounds, Johnson then began to dance around the ring, forcing Perrins to follow in order to make a fight of it. This "shifting" confused Perrins because the custom at the time was for the fighters to stand still and hit each other, but the rules for this particular fight did not prevent it. Nor did they specify what should happen if a contestant fell to the ground, which is what Johnson did in order to avoid being hit – this action was thought by the spectators to be unsporting but was permitted by the two umpires. Before long both fighters showed signs of their opponent's attacks, with first Perrins and then Johnson suffering cut eyes and then further damage to their faces. By the fight's end Perrins' head "had scarcely the traces left of a human being", [13 ] according to Pierce Egan in his history of boxing. The contest lasted 62 rounds, which took a total of 75 minutes to complete, until Perrins became totally exhausted. [1 ][ 8] [13 ][ 15 ] Tony Gee has said that Perrins had overwhelming physical advantages but, owing to his naïvety, no clause was inserted in the articles of agreement to prevent "shifting" ... Moreover, Perrins was inexperienced in the subterfuges of the sport and found himself outwitted by his artful adversary. [8 ]A celebrated champion, Jack Broughton , and his supporters had gone some way to codifying some rules in 1743, based on work by an earlier champion called James Figg , but by Johnson's time they were still very loose in interpretation and implementation. [3 ][ 16 ]Perrins' supporters had gambled heavily on him because of his reputation and his advantage in size. In the event it was a major supporter of Johnson, a Thomas Bullock, [5 ]... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.