Let's see your exonumia!

Yes, it is a Roty, titled "La Fermiere". It was produced in 1890 for the French Association for the Advancement of Science, and it came in two sizes, 68mm & 45mm.

Louis Oscar Roty and Jules Clement Chaplain were the foremost leaders of the contemporary movement of medallic art in France during the latter half of the 19th century. Roty often signed his works "O. Roty". His works are so extensive that my Forrer reference lists 20 pages of fine print devoted to him. I have some of his specimens stored away. Unfortunately, I lost most of my images when my old computer died.

Here is one of my favorite medals by J.C. Chaplain. It is one of the official medals of the 1900 Universal Exposition (World's Fair) held in Paris in conjunction with the Second Olympiad. It was struck in bronze by the Paris Mint and is 63.4mm. (I like it so much that I have three of them!)





I'm also a big fan of Marianne, the Symbol of France, and this is my favorite. It depicts her standing in front of the French Senate, and the high relief makes it almost look 3-D. I don't have an image of the reverse because it was lost with the others.



Chris

 

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Really nice medals Chris! (@cpm9ball ) Not sure if you said it already, but how many have you collected?

Second question - it seems that many on the market were intended to be awarded to someone though I've yet to see one that was engraved. Can you shed any light on this?

 

George I, 1718 Treaty of Passarowitz by J. Croker. Eimer 479, 45mm, SP64BN

 

Wow! Another winner! You have a lot of wonderful medals - is there a theme to how you choose additions? Is it medals that speak to you, or is it something else?

 

@old49er

I have several hundred from France, Belgium and Switzerland, struck in silver (argent), copper (cuivre) and bronze and ranging in size from 28mm to 90mm.

I have some that were intended to be award medals. A lot of times, these medals are produced in advance of the judging for the event, and it depends on whether or not they are all awarded. The extras are usually left to the event organizer to dispose of since they paid for them.

Also, it can be left up to the award winner to have their own medal personally engraved. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Sometimes, the engraving can be very ornate (for example, an anniversary or a wedding medal), and sometimes it can be rather crude, depending on how much the honoree wants to spend. Other times, the award winners don't bother.

There can be other instances where the medals are struck with the honorees name added to the design of the die. An example would be someone who is anticipating retirement, and the medal is awarded as a gift. Even an award medal can be produced with the winner's name as part of the design, but these are usually presented some time after the event.

Here is one in which the exergue is left blank.



Here is an award medal with the name part of the die. (Note: I have another of this medal in which the exergue is blank.)





Chris

 

@Jwt708
@old49er

Here is another of the 1889 Universal Exposition in silver with a different name.





Chris

 

Nailed it Chris! Thanks!

 

Since we seem to be onto French medals again, here are a couple I have posted before. Sorry my photographic skills are not great. (More to the point I do not have a suitable camera, so these are just Scans!) The medals are actually very sharp - particularly the second one, which is very high relief.

 

In my continuing quest for cent sample slabs two more have found their way to my doorstep.

 

Paddy, I have the same Roty obverse of Marianne with a different reverse. I just don't have the photos.

Chris

 

Yes - I did quite a bit of research and found the reverse in lots of places on the net, but never paired with the Marianne obverse. Hence I still don't really know what this one was meant for. French National fire service or something?

 

Well, the French title in the exergue is translated as "to have courage", but I can't read the name of the designer on the left rim of the exergue. Can you make it out?

 

The designer is on the right of the exergue and is Roty. On the left it reads "A.DESAIDE ED." On the Obverse the designer is written "O.ROTY" and there is also "A.DESAIDE EDIT" under the chin of Marianne.
I hope that helps?

 

Alphonse Desaide took over the business from his father. In those days, he was known as a "publisher of medals", and he added embellishments to the works of well-known artists like Roty and Pillet. That is why you find the names of Roty and Desaide on both sides, and it is also why you find the Marianne obverse mated with many other reverses.

Chris

 

That's great - thanks for the info. Does it give us a date range for it's production?

 

Unfortunately, no. There are only 8 lines of print describing the Desaide firm with no images, dates or descriptions. A further search of the Roty listing didn't produce anything either. I can only presume that this medal was not one of great importance.

This a little outside-of-the-box, but maybe you can turn up something if you googled "firefighting in 19th century France" or something like that.

Chris

 

I tried some of that before and ran out of steam! In the end this one, along with the Marie D'Orleans one, are outside my collecting area and I will be selling them. I think they stand well enough on their own for design elegance.

 

@cpm9ball I hope I'm quoting you (and tagging you) correctly...haven't done too many posts like this. Here is my cell phone picture of the Senate medal. It looks to be named for a specific Senator, so yours is likely different. The color is off, but that is part of the cell phone camera issue.

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I'm just amazed at the skill of medal engravers particularly in the use of perspective and detail. Although I've focussed on the medals of George III and Victoria (because I used to collect coinage from those eras), the papal medals are also spectacular in this respect.