Looks to be white metal or pewter. Theme on both sides is Parthenon but my info stops there. Anyone ever seen a similar medal?
Edited your post to embed the full sized images rather than thumbnails. (Look for that option when you're posting). It's a really neat piece. I can't tell you anything you haven't already figured out, though apparently it has something to do with the Elgin Marbles (from the Parthenon, as you mentioned). "The Car of the Night" is an intriguing phrase. I wonder what it means?
I know nothing other than Google, but "car of night" appears to be a phrase related to the travel of the sun across the skies, and that horse (if I'm reading right) was on one of the Elgin Marbles. https://books.google.com/books?id=q...=onepage&q=car of night elgin marbles&f=false
Cool. Thanks. Speaking of medals, and horses, and horses traveling the sky, here is Aurora in her cloud chariot, on a ca. 1740 French jeton I once had. Mythologically similar, I believe.
OK, so I gather the horse head seen on Greg's medal there belonged to the statuary from the Parthenon which depicted The Car of the Night. It is shown in a disembodied state on the medal because that was how it traveled to England? Perhaps it was (maybe still is) displayed that way in the British Museum?
There are a whole pile of horses in the Elgin collection at the British Museum; I've been privileged to see them. This is a "loose" one on a pedestal, whereas most are in friezes. They all tend to look a bit like this, but I suppose it could be the same one as on the medal.
Looks left, looks right, looks behind. Whispers. Is that where the idea for the Godfather came from? Spooky is right.
There is a phrase in French on the reverse of this medal "HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE" Meaning "Shame on him who thinks this evil" This is a Motto that is used by the British Order of the Garter. Here is a website that explain what this is.https://www.royal.uk/order-garter
Upon Further research this seems to be one of a set of 48 medals that were minted around 1820. Each medal was made out of a white medal and depicted one of the Elgin Marbles. I found a set that sold on another website back in 2007 https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=104399 Hope that helps ya out a little.