Medals Column #8
Medal
Identification: Questions and Answers
by Samuel Pennington
For this month’s column we present some
questions, some answers, and some medal identification notes. The questions we
could not answer, we turned over to numismatic writer D. Wayne Johnson.
The
first question came to us in an e-mail from Ben Andrew.
Hi all!
My
grandfather recently passed this bronze medal on to me, and I was wondering if
you could shed any light upon possible history or relevance? The rim is stamped
“MEDALLIC ART CO. NY” and is 5 mm thick, standing slightly shorter than
a packet of cigarettes. The name BC ENWONWU brings up all kinds of information
on the artist, who won an IBM (International Business Machines) medal in the same
year. I’m just wondering if this is actually THE medal? That would be quite
something! It was picked up by my uncle in a junk shop, in Chester,
England, in the
1960’s for about 5 English pence. Any information you could provide would
be of great interest!
Many thanks.
Benjamin Andrew
D.
Wayne Johnson replies:
Oh! If only this medal could talk. It must have had
an interesting history. Too bad it went through World War II—it shows excessive
battle damage!
The medal was commissioned by IBM when it was International
Business Machines. It was designed by John Flanagan (1865-1952), who was one of
the most famous and productive beaux art medallic artists of the first half of
the 20th century. His JF inside a circle monogram is located lower left below
the bench Lady Art is seated on. It was the last medal the famous sculptor created,
despite the fact he lived for 11 more years after this medal.
It was struck
by Medallic Art Company, then of New
York City, and despite the 1939 date was not made until
1941. It was struck in silver because bronze was not available. It was too critical
as a war material and thus one of the few medals made during World War II. [If
it says “bronze” on the edge it was struck after World War II and
silver-plated—it looks silver.]
It was called simply, International
Business Machines Corporation Art Award Medal.
It is recorded in Medallic Art Company archives as die number
41-13. At some time afterwards, the reverse—the side with the palette and
brushes—was deemed to become a stock design. As such, it was available to
anyone who wanted to mule it with their own new obverse die, or to issue it as
a uniface, stand-alone medal. The stock die number was assigned 41-30.
The
present medal was hand engraved to the recipient. The hand engraving is typical
high quality of the period, but it will be noticed a second stroke of the engraver’s
burin on the base of the E, the first initial of the last name.
The last auction
sale of this medal was December 3, 1988, by Presidential Coin & Antique [Company]
(auction #45, lot 369). It sold then for $397.
For collectors, it is considered
collectible under several topics: art, science, business, and ethnic (because
of the recipient). As such, it is called a strong “crossover” because
of four such topics.
Unfortunately, it shows excessive rim damage, nicks,
and dents and has been excessively polished (grossly reducing its permanent value).
I have retired from dealing in medals, but if I had to give a value to the present
medal it might be $40 to $50 because it is so severely deteriorated. Had it been
in pristine condition it would bring ten times or more than that.
Dick Johnson
(Author Sam Pennington disagrees on the estimated value. He suggests the medal
in its present state should be worth at least its 1988 auction price of $397.)
The following inquiry was sent to the editor of the MCA Advisory, the monthly newsletter of the Medals Collectors of America.
I answered it for the Advisory, so I’m
also printing it here.
Dear Mr. Adams
[editor of the MCA Advisory]:
In the May issue
of the MCA Advisory at the top of the
second column on page 9 there is a reference to the subject medal. I have a very
large (about 80 mm) and heavy medal made, I think, of what token collectors call
“white metal,” which I believe is this same medal. It is very dark,
but it is bright and shiny in the deepest recesses where it is untoned. I picked
it up at a flea market for $15.
One side of the medal depicts two sea gods,
and around the edge reads UNION OF ERIE WITH THE ATLANTIC. The other side (I don’t
know which to call the obverse*) shows an eagle perched on an egg-shaped device,
across which there is a ribbon which reads EXCELSIOR. Around the edge there is
the inscription, “ERIE CANAL COMMENCED 4 JULY 1817 COMPLETED 26 OCTR 1825.”
The medal is signed in very small print, “THOMASON.”
I would be
extremely grateful for any information you can give me about this medal, such
as how old it is, what it is made of, who made it, to whom it was distributed,
etc. Perhaps you can direct me to a reference book where this medal is discussed.
I have heard that medals are sometimes sent out to be “refinished.”
This one is very dark, has two small holes drilled in the top, which happily do
not show when the medal is looked at head on, and some rim dings and scratches.
Is it possibly a candidate for refinishing?
Thank you for any help you can
give me in enjoying my flea market medal.
Best regards,
Jeff Hawk
To the Editor:
In answer to Mr. Hawk’s letter, what he has
is the Completion of the Erie Canal, 1826.
It is 81 mm and made of white metal.
Joe Levine’s Presidential Coin auction
catalogs say it was sculpted by Charles Cushing Wright. The obverse shows Pan
seated on a cornucopia filled with the fruits of the land, his arm around Neptune,
who is seated by the ocean. The reverse shows the New
York coat of arms surrounded by an eagle on a half globe,
flanked by a view of Castle William. This medal was prepared for the great celebration
in New York City in early 1826 to commemorate the
completion, after eight years of labor, of the Erie Canal, which linked the Hudson
River and Lake Erie.
Curiously, Ledlie Laughlin’s1940 Pewter
in America, Volume I, figure
280, lists this medal as in his collection and as made of pewter and the pewterer
as unknown. In reality it was struck by Sir Edward Thomason (1769-1849), a Birmingham,
England
diesinker, manufacturer, and inventor.
I have one of these medals in my collection.
The information about the pewter you won’t find elsewhere. I happened on
it because the antiques dealer who sold it to my wife as a Christmas present for
me knew we collect pewter and called it to our attention. By the way, I think
it is not pewter but white metal, but much late pewter is almost white metal.
Sam Pennington
*The front side of a medal is called obverse,
the back side the reverse.
THOMASON
Dick Johnson confirmed our supposition about Thomason’s part in the manufacture
of this medal. Here is his database entry on Thomason.
THOMASON, Edward
(1769-1849) British manufacturer, inventor.
Born Birmingham,
England, 1769.
At 16 he was apprenticed to Matthew Boulton at Soho,
where he learned the mechanics of dies and die striking. In 1793 he inherited
a buckle factory on his father’s retirement which he expanded to manufacture
buttons, tokens, medals, works in bronze, and plated items. He developed the concept
of medals in series and struck 60 medals on fine arts, the kings and queens of
Britain,
but he is most noted for his medallic series, the Thomason Medallic Bible.
He was a contemporary of the Scovills
in America and probably passed
some button manufacturing technology on to them and produced items for them before
they were able to manufacture the items themselves in Connecticut.
Sir Thomason was knighted by William IV in 1832. He presented items of his
manufacture to the heads of many countries and received eight foreign orders of
knight-hood in addition to other honors. He wrote his autobiography, 1845, which
enumerated these honors. Died Warwick,
England, 29 May
1849.
MEDALS
1783 Washington and Independence Medal (obv
by Thomas Halliday was actually the military bust of the Duke of Wellington with
added lettering to make it appropriate for Washington; rev engraved by Thomas
Wells Ingram in Birmingham from painting by Edward Savage made in Philadelphia;
both initials appear on rev; all struck in Sir Edward Thomason’s Birmingham
factory) [large bust variety].
1783 Washington and Independence Medal
[small bust variety].
1826 Erie Canal Completion Medal (designed by Archibald
Robertson, engraved by Charles Cushing Wright; struck by Thomason’s factory,
Birmingham). Collection:
American Numismatic Society.
REPLICAS & REISSUES
1967-70
Thomason Medallic Bible Medals (set of 60; new dies recut by Fritz Weiland, hand
engraver, from series originally issued by Thomason in England
and reissued by Franklin Mint). |
Dick (D. Wayne)
Johnson
Dick Johnson (who writes under the name D. Wayne Johnson)
wrote his first numismatic article in 1949 at the age of 19. His 1998 script,
The Medal Maker, was narrated by Elizabeth
Jones, former Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint, and made into a home video by Hollywood
film producer Michael Craven.
Johnson created Coin
World, the world’s first numismatic news weekly, in 1960 and served as
its first editor. He was the first director of research for Medallic Art Company,
a position he held for a decade and where he edited the firm’s collector
newsletter, The Art Medalist, cataloged
the firm’s archives, and was active in the great outpouring of medals for
the American bicentennial.
Johnson has owned or managed two numismatic auction
firms specializing in medallic art:
Johnson & Jensen and Collectors’
Auctions Ltd. In his retirement he is compiling two books; one is a directory
of American artists, diesinkers, engravers, medallists, and sculptors of coins
and medals. He has collected the terms of coin and medal technology and has written
entries on these terms for an encyclopedia of this vital information.
Johnson
is a frequent contributor to E-Sylum,
a weekly Internet newsletter for collectors of numismatic literature (currently
more than 600 articles). He was a medal consultant for the Carnegie Hero Fund
for its centennial medal and for other medal-issuing organizations. In 2005 he
was named to the board of directors of Gallery
Mint Museum.
In 2006 he was named curator of numismatic art at the Belskie
Museum in Closter,
New Jersey. | Questions--Suggestions?
Please e-mail <mad@maineantiquedigest.com>.
|
