1889 Medal GW-1135 Cast Silver Inaugural Centennial MS(PCGS#910235)

Winter 2022 U.S. Coins Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

2205

等级

AU55

价格

144,071

详细说明

Extremely Rare 1889 Inaugural Centennial Medal in Silver The Third Example we have Offered 1889 Centennial of Washington’s Inauguration Medal by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Musante GW-1135 var., Douglas-53A. Silver Shells. AU-55 (PCGS). 112.2 mm. 5378.1 grains. 5.2 mm thick at the rims. Approximately 9.7 mm thick at the highest relief. Edge marked GORHAM.MFG.CO / STERLING. Another very rare variant of this popular medal, one of just three we have handled in silver. Satiny deep gray with some lighter highlights on the highest points of the motifs. Slight mottling on both sides and traces of ruddy brown patina in a couple of the recesses. A beautiful specimen of this classic American medallic sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, an extremely rare medal in this silver composition, produced from two cast silver shells, as all seen. Some mild handling softness on the high points. One faint scratch is visible in the right obverse field, and another is seen across the small shield at the upper reverse, but the surfaces are fairly clean otherwise. A few tiny edge marks are also seen. According to C.W. Bowen's The History of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washington,just ten of these were produced. Those we are aware of are as follows: 1) Richard Watson Gilder Specimen. Given to Saint-Gaudens' friend and member of the Committee of Art for the Inauguration Centennial Celebration. 112.1mm, 345.9 grams. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO STERLING. 2) Stack's September 2011 Philadelphia Americana Sale, lot 249. 112.5 mm, 347.3 grams. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO STERLING. The Present Example. 3) Southern Private Collection. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO STERLING. 4) Fritz Rudolf Kunker Auction 247, lot 5631. 112.08mm. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO STERLING. 5) Stack's January 2007 Americana Sale, lot 6835; Stack's September 2009 Philadelphia Americana Sale, lot 6215; Stack's Bowers Galleries August 2012 ANA Sale, lot 11146. 111.1 mm, 354.1 grams. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO [symbols for lion passant, anchor, and gothic G] STERLING. 6) Western Ohio Private Collection. 348.9 grams. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO [symbols for lion passant, anchor, and gothic G] STERLING. 7) American Numismatic Society Collection. #0000.999.39468. 112 mm, 345.5 grams. Edge marked GORHAM. MFG. CO [symbols for lion passant, anchor, and gothic G] STERLING. A silver example was offered in Stack's January 2002 Americana Sale, lot 434. which is undoubtedly genuine but of anomalous size and construction. At 106.6 mm it is smaller than other known examples in silver and is constructed of a 7.5mm thick collar joining silver shells for a total weight of 392.54 grams. It is in a private east coast collection. Though reported otherwise in the past, there is no specimen in silver in the New York Historical Society, a fact we have confirmed with their curator. This medal was designed and conceived by Saint-Gaudens, the massive medallion reflecting his love for Renaissance-style cast medals as an artistic medium, and his former assistant Philip Martiny (later artistic director of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1892-93) created the models from which the medals were cast. The medals were cast in bronze for sale to the public, and many of those medals exist today. They are considerably thinner than the silver specimens and significantly lighter. The medals of this size were all cast by Gorham, the great Providence and New York jewelry and decorative arts firm also used by Saint-Gaudens to cast his Robert Gould Shaw Memorial and other works. A smaller imitative medal, design to be worn by committee members at the inauguration celebrations, was produced by Tiffany. Provenance: From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from our Americana Sale of September 2011, lot 249.