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St Gaudens "satirical" medal from 1878


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I came across a description of this medal in a New York Times article today about St-Gaudens. He made it following a trip he made in France in 1878 with the architects Stanford White and Charles McKim. It seems St-Gaudens was just as much a wild man in general, and specifically around women, as White (who seduced Evelyn Nesbit, etc). I like the ironically over-exaggerated "classicality" of the medal, kind of a Monty Python take on historical "architecture."

 

DP169696.jpg

This is the biggest image I could get, but the Met Museum page linked below allows much closer inspection. That's Stanford White in the middle, St-Gaudens on the left and McKim on the right.

NYTimes page

Met Museum page

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The inscriptions:

 

Inscriptions: [around edge]: HIC • MEDALVM • IN • HONOREM • VIAGIATVM • IN SVDIT • GALLIA • XI • DIVRNI • IN • MESI [representation of a crab]: •M D • C • C • C • LXXVIII • / [written backward, right to left]: •F M • S • BEAVNE • D • L • RHONE • A • ST • GILES • A • C • R • P •; [upper left and right]: DAMVS • / SOLVM •; [center left]: • TICKLEVM • / FVRIO; [center right]: • VA • SECHAS•; [lower center]: K • M • A

 

 

I particularly like, "DAMVS TICKLEVM."

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