By Samuel Pennington

Collectors sometimes buy things without knowing exactly what they are. Probably there is a faint hope that the object will turn out to be better than hoped for.I once bought a 5-inch cast bronze ashtray in the belief that it might have been one of the classically inspired ashtray medals of Paul Manship.

No dice, though. A knowlegeable dealer informed me that it was just another European Erotic casting.

The cast medal of this subject is perhaps more obscure and more familiar if both those qualities can be considered to exist in one object.

Uncle Sam is riding an eagle which is clutching a cannon and they both are beating up on a soldier in what looks like a German spike helmet. There is an unmarked shield and an unmarked banner, A chip has broken off at about the 1:30 position. The holes and flange indicate something else framed the picture. There is a number inscribed at the bottom, 5569.

Some might question whether this is even a medal.

From: "Dick Johnson" mailto:Dick.Johnson@snet.net

The "What's It" item you illustrate for more information is a pattern.

The 4 holes, the irregular edge, the numbers lightly inscribed on the flange at the bottom all indicate this was used as a pattern to mount on a reducing machine. It was not framed, the 4 holes were for attaching it to the "pattern chariot" in the reducing machine. The edge chip is insignificant.

It could be of English manufacture, or of American that did not reach final production. The content of the design indicate England (or America) vs Germany and is from an immediate pre-World War I era when anti-German sentiment was at its height in the two countries.

The ultimate product could have been a medal (none seen), but is more apt to have been a jewelry item.

Dick Johnson.