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The Head of Ceres by Oudine.


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Exposition Universelle Paris 1878. Obv. by OUDINE. Rev. Palais Du Champ De Mars. by LAGRANGE. 51mm Bronze original strike.

 

The head of Ceres with "Concord" head band. Designed by Eugene Andre Oudine (1810-89) who worked for the Paris Mint.

 

Used in french coins (not my coin)

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Does this article refer to Oudines Ceres Head?

 

Engravers and their connection with the mint in the nineteenth century.

 

Written by Jean Belaubre, published in Bulletin 34 (1972) of the Club Français de la Médaille, and translated by David Block.

 

THE CONSULTING COMMITTEE OF ENGRAVERS.

 

"Never the less, on 13 June 1840 the committee determined "that there are no more urgent reproductions to be made"; it "thinks that part of the available funds might be spent on making new dies and punches here-in-after to be designated", a head of Hippocrates (50 mm) and a figure with attributes related to agricultural societies (50 mm). Eugene Dubois received two thousand francs for the first; Oudine twenty five hundred for the second. After having submitted their designs for criticism each artist engraved a punch and two dies for his subject. They still weren't through with prize medals"

 

Thanks due to elverno for his Napoleonic website, for the article.

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The reference couldn't be more vague, could it? "a figure with attributes related to agricultural societies"' :ninja:

Does anyone know of any use in medals etc. of Oudiné's design (i.e., the Cérès head) before 1848? not I....

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The reference couldn't be more vague, could it? "a figure with attributes related to agricultural societies"' :confus:

Does anyone know of any use in medals etc. of Oudiné's design (i.e., the Cérès head) before 1848? not I....

 

Rereading the article it does say "figure" not head but it could still have been Ceres and her head from that medal that was the pattern for the iconic concorde head. Perhaps some one will have the design that won in 1840 or if a medal was actually produced.

 

For such an iconic symbol of republican Franch there is not much info available on its origins (perhaps the info has been deliberately supressed, if it was designed pre-revolution?). I also notice that in descriptions of the head, all mention of the opium poppies is missing.

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Opium poppies? Hmmm... yeah, I guess they could be poppies, indeed. I never really looked. But then again I've never seen a woman walking around with oak leaves (w/acorns), olive branches (w/olives) and wheat in her hair. The first flower looks like a daisy. What about the poppies? Wishful symbols of a sleepy, happy republic? :ninja:

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Opium poppies? Hmmm... yeah, I guess they could be poppies, indeed. I never really looked. But then again I've never seen a woman walking around with oak leaves (w/acorns), olive branches (w/olives) and wheat in her hair. The first flower looks like a daisy. What about the poppies? Wishful symbols of a sleepy, happy republic? :ninja:

 

From the Roman Goddess Ceres by Barbette Stanley Spaeth.

 

' Vergil calls the flower "the poppy of Ceres" cereale papaver. The poppies on the Ara Pacis relief are those of the opium poppy, papaver somniferum........... The opium that the plant produces connects it with sleep and death, and hence refers to her (Ceres) liminal aspect

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Opium poppies? Hmmm... yeah, I guess they could be poppies, indeed. I never really looked. But then again I've never seen a woman walking around with oak leaves (w/acorns), olive branches (w/olives) and wheat in her hair.

 

Where do you live? I see that every day...If I only had a centime for every woman I see out shopping with oak leaves and wheat in her hair...:ninja:

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Where do you live? I see that every day...If I only had a centime for every woman I see out shopping with oak leaves and wheat in her hair...:ninja:

 

I was too polite to mention that, as I did not want to cause any embarrassment to anyone. Sorry, I noticed that you don't mention poppies...........!

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Oh, I see women walking around with poppies in their hair all the time, just not the other stuff. :ninja:

 

Well, I learn something (almost) every day on CP. Thanks for the research constanius. I've been Googling "Ceres" and "Demeter" with "Poppies" all afternoon now, and am learning more about Greek and Roman religious practices, surely more than I ever need to know. But if there's ever a quiz, I'll be ready. ;)

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  • 3 years later...

 

 


" 13 June 1840 the committee determined "that there are no more urgent reproductions to be made"; it "thinks that part of the available funds might be spent on making new dies and punches here-in-after to be designated", a head of Hippocrates (50 mm) and a figure with attributes related to agricultural societies (50 mm). Eugene Dubois received two thousand francs for the first; Oudine twenty five hundred for the second. After having submitted their designs for criticism each artist engraved a punch and two dies for his subject. They still weren't through with prize medals"


I found this obverse picture on-line with no info or the reverse. Signed by Oudine and it matches the description above,
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I then found;
From Index to Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States, 1849-1850, published in 1850;
Under the heading Medals for Prizes.
"960 Ceres, with ripe corn in one hand and a sickle in the other; in the field, a plough and a cornucopia, (E. Oudine fecit.) Reverse, a wreath of corn and grapes, in which are the heads of a cow and a horse, with a plough, and blank to inscribe the name of the meritorious - - - - 50"

So this is most likely Oudine's design from his commission in 1840, for which he was awarded 2,500 francs. Obviously Ceres' iconic head was not inspired by this previous medal of his.

 

EDIT. Forrer lists a Prize Medal by Oudine with the head of Ceres (ordered by the " Comite des Monnaies) he places it between 1845-1847 listed medals (which being a prize medal is not dated) which if correct, would make it the inspiration for the later coins.

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That's a very nice find you have there! How did you come by it?

The Exposition Universelle Paris 1878 medal, in the first post in this topic, is mine unfortunately the one I found the picture of doing a google picture search is not mine. The link from google pics went to an old french ebay auction(since deleted) but the picture remains on google pics. I only posted it as I recognised it matched the description of the Paris Mint's comission, and then by googling again using the objects depicted and Ceres i was able to find the writen description in the US documents which meant it was struck at a minimum pre-1849. It was contained in a gift of 478 medals from France to the USA, see below.

 

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Strangely the list of medals runs to 1008, the Ceres is #960. This other extract explains the diference, the 487 were a further gift bring the total up to 1008 in the list, though it states 1022 in the preamble.

 

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One last extract which relates to electrotyping.

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