Photo Credit: Enjoy Treasure
1890 French Agricultural Medal by Hubert Ponscarme
Buy It Now Price: $50.97 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)
Pros:
-This solid silver French agricultural medal from 1890 features the winged bust of the Roman god Mercury on the obverse and his caduceus (staff) surrounded by farm bounty on the reverse.
-This antique silver medal measures 40 mm (1.57 inches) in diameter and weighs 38 grams (1.22 troy ounces). This is impressively large, surpassing both the size and weight of a U.S. silver dollar.
-The designer of this French agricultural medal, François Joseph Hubert Ponscarme (commonly shortened to Hubert Ponscarme), was a French sculptor and medalist who worked from the early 1850s until his death in 1903 at the age of 75.
-The inscription on the reverse of this medal reads “Cercle Agricole de Rethel Ardennes 1890”, which roughly translates as “Agricultural Cooperative of Rethel Ardennes 1890”.
-Hubert Ponscarme won several artistic awards during his life, including placing in the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome competition in 1854, 1855 and 1857. He was also one of the French Emperor Napoleon III’s official medal portraitists during the 1850s and 1860s.
-Rethel is a small town located in the Ardennes department of northeastern France. Purportedly founded by the Roman general Julius Caesar in the 1st century BC, Rethel was a center for wool-spinning and the manufacture of woolen fabrics in the late 19th century.
-Created near the end of Hubert Ponscarme’s career, this French agricultural medal reflects his technical maturity as an artist. This can be seen in the marvelous details of Mercury’s bust and also how the grape vine clings to the presentation plaque on the medal’s reverse.
-This French agricultural medal comes straight out of the country’s famous Belle Époque period, which stretched from 1871 until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This cultural golden age produced many notable French people, including the chemist Marie Curie, the artist Paul Gauguin, and the mathematician/physicist Henri Poincaré.
-Ponscarme was known for using typography as a central feature of his medal designs. This is clearly visible in the example above, where the bold, Roman-inspired font frames the medal perfectly.
-The $51 asking price is unbelievably cheap for a 130 year old, solid silver French medal in absolutely superb condition. I have absolutely no reservations about recommending this piece as a top-notch investment.
Cons:
-Agricultural medals are not as popular as transportation-themed medals showing automobiles, trains or airplanes. But with a buy-it-now price of only $51, it is tough to go wrong with this beautiful antique silver medal from the height of the French Belle Époque.
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