Exonumia; Exposition Universelle Internationale Medal Paris 1900

80mm; 166.2gm

#4...I saved the best for last.

The obverse is very slightly concave, and the portrait is magnificent IMO.

The reverse is signed: VC CHAPLAIN...would that person have done the obverse as well?

The small rectangular plaque beneath the figures reads: EXERCICES PHYSIQUES ET SPORTS

It looks and feels like silver; as before, no research has been started.

Thanks for looking, and for your comments.

 

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I don't know a great deal about it, but wiki helps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposition_Universelle_(1900)

 

[h=3]Yes, my understanding is JC Chaplain did both sides of the medal. Some bio info:

Jules-Clément Chaplain[/h]Jules-Clément Chaplain (July 12, 1839 – July 13, 1909) was a French sculptor and one of its finest medallists. With Louis Oscar Roty (1846–1911) he helped found the Art Nouveau movement.

Chaplain was born in Mortagne-au-Perche, Orne, and in 1857 entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied sculpture under François Jouffroy and medals under Eugène Oudiné. In 1863 he won the Prix de Rome for medal-engraving and worked in Rome 1864-1868. He exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1863, receiving numerous awards, and in 1869 returned to Paris where he found official success almost immediately. In 1877 he was named official medallist of the French government, in 1878 a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, and in 1881 appointed to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1896 he became Art Director of the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres in 1900 a Commander of the Légion d'honneur.
Chaplain was responsible for the official portraits of every president of the French Republic from Patrice de Mac-Mahon, duc de Magenta, in 1877 to Émile Loubet in 1899. He also received the commission for engraving the gold coinage of France, and his official gold medal commemorating the 1896 visit of Czar Nicholas II of Russia was called "a masterpiece and one of the finest ever struck."

 

Thanks, Paddy...

 

Fascinating! The man helped found Art Nouveau...I'm thrilled to have this piece of history. Thanks!

 

heres the silver all other i can find are bronze

this one went for $799


http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-SILVER...955?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a287f41ab

 

I agree....the portrait, bust, truncation is indeed magnificent.

 

There are a few artists I really watch for, Chaplain is one of them. Almost everything he did was wonderful. Here's another one:




Dave

 

Funny listing...a smaller, lighter medal, without lanyard eye, and rim-marked Argent...but the seller says it's bronze.

BTW, it got NO bids at $799.

Thanks for the link!

 

yeah it was a quick glance

 

STUNNING! This acquisition may prove to have started a costly chase. Chaplain was obviously a Master. I'll be looking for a book. Thanks!

 

That is a real BEAUTY!

 

Wow! I do not often comment on medals, but that is one of the best I have ever seen! I NEED one!

 

Very nice medal love the subject and design :thumb:

 

The 1900 Exposition was held in Paris at the same time as the Olympics, though the Olympics was not the greater attraction. Jules Clement Chaplain was one of five French medalists to produce medals, plaquettes and medalets for the occasions. The others, in no particular order were, Frederic Charles Victor de Vernon, Louis Oscar Roty, Adolphe Rivet and Louis Bottee.

In Victor Gadoury's book, Olympic Medals and Coins, the Chaplain medal is listed at 63.4mm and was struck in silver and bronze. There is no mention of an 80mm specimen of the same design, nor one with the lanyard coupling. It is possible that one of the award winners commissioned the enlargement (for family?) since the concave obverse you mentioned sounds a bit odd. It is also possible that it was reproduced in silvered bronze which was cheaper to have made as opposed to one of pure silver. Since all of the medals were produced at the Paris Mint, did you check the edge for the mintmark and composition? The mintmark for all Paris Mint medals of the period was the "cornucopia". Silver medals would have "ARGENT" stamped on the edge and bronze or silvered bronze medals would have "BRONZE" on the edge.

Chaplain is one of my favorite French medalists, and I like his 1900 Exposition Universelle so much that I have three of them in bronze. For what it is worth, I have been watching for one of the silver medals for about 9-10 years, but I have never seen a single one.

Chris

 

After looking at your images more carefully, I believe that it is a copy of Chaplain's original. The font is somewhat crude, the word "PARIS" has been added above the date and Chaplain did not sign the original using his initials, which by the way, are "JC" not "VC".

Chris

 

Actually if you take a look at the medal pictured in the eBay auction that enochian posted it is signed "J C CHAPLAIN"

 

I tend to agree with you Chris, something just looks a bit "off" about the whole piece.

Question for you coin folks... Many of these medals are made in various sizes. Do you know whether that was done by sculpting another larger/smaller die? Or was there some more automated way to size up/down an existing die to create a new one?

Dave

 

During that period, they were actually using reduction lathes to make smaller medals, but I don't know too much about the enlarging process.

Chris

 

Coins and medals are sculpted at a much larger scale than the finished product, then mechanically reduced using a machine called a transfer-engraver. Making copies at multiple scales shouldn't be much of a problem. Here's a page that very briefly goes through the steps.