constanius Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Obv. LOUIS ANTOINE DUC D'ANGOULEME Gayrard Rev. LOUIS ANTOINE D'ARTOIS FILS DE FRANCE DUC D'ANGOULEME GRAND AMIRAL COLONEL GENERAL DES CUIRASSIERS ET DES DRAGONS PROTECTEUR DE L'ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE Exergue. NE A VERSAILLES LE 5 AOUST 1775 Hard to date this medal, I have tentatively dated it circa 1819(now place it as 1816), could be earlier or later (perhaps Vern can help me with this) by Gayrard bronze 41mm original strike. He was, technically at least, Louis XIX for a few minutes in 1830, following the abdication of his father Charles X. Elder brother of my avatar Duc de Berry. I have had this medal for a few years, never seen another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elverno Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Certainly extremely rare. At first I thought that it might date circa 1815. Forrer mentions a piece by Gayrard then but I suspect he was thinking of Bramsen 1605 (also Gayrard, also rare). I couldn't find anything else Gayrard did with Louis Antoine as the subject but Forrer admits that his list is incomplete. Also nothing in the Supplement. Nothing in Bramsen, d'Essling, Milan. I don't own Collignon and it probably is listed there (more coverage of the Bourbons and post Restoration). As to date, 1819 seems reasonable. He was a military man and this definitely talks about his military titles. Wikipedia and a couple of other sources stop mentioning his military life after the intervention in Spain in 1823 so I'd guess that would be the absolute outside. But then you'd expect the medal to mention something about Spain... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constanius Posted September 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2009 Thanks for your response Vern, glad you had not seen 10 of these on ebay! Bramsen 1605 does come up there occasionally and elsewhere, so I thought this was rarer. For those who are not well versed in french, 'Protecteur de l'Ecole Polytechnique', though listed straight after his military titles, just means 'Patron of the Polytechnic School' it has nothing to do with a military event, he was named Patron for his donation(books for the library) & his support of the Polytechnic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
constanius Posted May 4, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 4, 2010 By royal decree the Duc was named 'Le Protecteur de l'Ecole Polytechnique' 4 sept 1816, bringing it under royal patronage. The King had been petitioned, 'we would like to have an illustrious Patron for the school at the foot of the throne, as institutions of public instruction had before the revolution'. So I think it reasonable to date this medal 1816. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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