ANA Medals - Grades posted today

[cpm9ball]

Well, to give you a preview, why don't you throw out the names of a few medallists, and I'll tell what info the set has.

Chris

[FilthyBroke]

Cool!  The first ones that come to mind are Nicholas Briot and Oscar Roty.  Roty was closer to the 1900's though, and  is the artist behind many really cool designs that I've just recently discovered.  Briot was working in the late 1500's to early 1600's and migrated from France to G. Britain. 

[cpm9ball]

Nicholas Briot was born at Damblain (Bassigny, Duchy of Bar) in Lorraine circa 1579 and died circa 1646. He was Chief Engraver at the Paris Mint from 1606-1625; he was appointed to the same post at the Royal Mint, London in 1633; Mint Master in Scotland, 1635-1639; Engraver of the coins of Lorraine, 1611-1624.

Briot succeeded Philip Danfrie at the Paris Mint, from whom he had purchased the office on the death of his son. I should interject, here, that in those days, it was quite common for a son to succeed his father in a position such as this.

Briot's first wife, Pauline Nisse, died in 1608; he remarried in 1611 Esther Petau, who at his death in 1646 was left penniless; but on the restoration of Charles II, she recovered the arrears due her husband amounting to 3000 pounds.

Briot invented or improved a new method of striking coins and medals by the balance which made them more perfectly round than they had ever been before, and submitted it to the Paris Mint authorities as early as 1615, but disgusted at the treatment he received, and pressed by his creditors, he fled to England. He worked at the Royal Mint as early as 1628 where he engraved coin dies for Charles I until his appointment as Chief Engraver in 1633. During his tenure as Master of the Mint in Scotland, he endured the Civil War and retired to Oxford where he died in 1646.

There are six full pages listing his works which is too extensive to post here.

Chris

[cpm9ball]

I'll post Louis Oscar Roty tomorrow. He is my favorite, and there are 20 pages of his works listed.

Chris

[FilthyBroke]

Nicholas Briot was born at Damblain (Bassigny, Duchy of Bar) in Lorraine circa 1579 and died circa 1646. He was Chief Engraver at the Paris Mint from 1606-1625; he was appointed to the same post at the Royal Mint, London in 1633; Mint Master in Scotland, 1635-1639; Engraver of the coins of Lorraine, 1611-1624.

Briot succeeded Philip Danfrie at the Paris Mint, from whom he had purchased the office on the death of his son. I should interject, here, that in those days, it was quite common for a son to succeed his father in a position such as this.

Briot's first wife, Pauline Nisse, died in 1608; he remarried in 1611 Esther Petau, who at his death in 1646 was left penniless; but on the restoration of Charles II, she recovered the arrears due her husband amounting to 3000 pounds.

Briot invented or improved a new method of striking coins and medals by the balance which made them more perfectly round than they had ever been before, and submitted it to the Paris Mint authorities as early as 1615, but disgusted at the treatment he received, and pressed by his creditors, he fled to England. He worked at the Royal Mint as early as 1628 where he engraved coin dies for Charles I until his appointment as Chief Engraver in 1633. During his tenure as Master of the Mint in Scotland, he endured the Civil War and retired to Oxford where he died in 1646.

There are six full pages listing his works which is too extensive to post here.

Chris

Hey, that IS pretty detailed info, and very interesting.  I read somewhere that Elloye Mestrell was, at least in part, also developing the coin press for France and later England.  I think maybe Mestrell was a little earlier though, in France in the 1570's now that I think about it.

There must be some good records to have lasted so long.  Briot engraved the silver English jeton that I have, which got me interested in his work. 

Thanks for posting this info.

[cpm9ball]

Louis Oscar Roty was born at Paris June 11, 1846 and he died at Paris March 23, 1911. He is the chief exponent of modern French medallic art, and with the late Jules Clement Chaplain, one of the leaders of a school which is first in the world. Roty entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1864 and first studied painting under the direction of Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Later he entered the workshop of the sculptor Augustin Dumont. In 1872 he obtained the second Grand Prix de Rome, and the following year he was rewarded at the Salon with a Medal of the Third Class for a model of a medal, L'Amour pique. He won the first Grand Prix de Rome in 1875. Roty spent three years in Rome.

Back in Paris, Roty was awarded a medal of the Second Class at the Salon of 1882 and a medal of the First Class in 1875. At the Universal Exhibition of 1889, he won the Grand Prix. He was created a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1885 and promoted to the rank of Officer on October 29, 1889. In June, 1888 he was appointed Professor at the Academie des Beaux Arts and in 1897 was named President of that institution.

As I said before, Roty's works are too numerous to mention. One of my favorites is the plaquette shown below L'Amour consolant l'Humanitewhich was used for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.

Chris

[FilthyBroke]

That's a beautiful plaquette, and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one interested in this sort of thing.  I've got a plaquette on it's way from a seller in France (no telling how long 'til it gets here), I'll post pics when it arrives. 

Thanks so much for posting the info on Roty, I was searching later-date jetons and came across what I consider to be the final evolution of art on jetons when I saw some of Roty's work.  All I can say is that it's amazing!  I then discovered a few of the medals that he did, and I immediately had to search for any pictures available of this type of engraving.  I ended up ordering a few pieces (no Roty pieces yet).  I think it's a natural step into these medals after collecting jetons, they're so similar.

It is interesting to read of Roty's background in art and engraving, even inspiring.  I'd have loved to have pursued something like this had I gone on to college.  But alas, we can at least enjoy the beautiful works if not being a part of it.  I think that's the driving force behind my jeton collection, holding these beautifully engraved and original pieces from the rise and development of fine (numismatic) art. 

Again, thanks for posting this info for me.

[cpm9ball]

Do you have Mitchiner's book on Jetons? It's what NGC uses for research and determining what they will accept for grading. The "book store" at FUN 2009 had a copy, but he wanted $200 and wouldn't budge on the price. When I got back home, I searched online and found a seller in England who had several new copies with a BIN/Make Offer. So, I did a quick calculation of the conversion from USD to GBP (including shipping) to make him an offer of $150 USD and he accepted. It's really a good book. It covers jetons, medalets and tokens for the Low Countries (Benelux) and France for the 14th through early 20th centuries. Besides providing such things as weight, diameter and composition, it also has a cross reference for translations (many are in Latin) to help you locate them.

Out of curiosity, what is the name of the seller in France? I've dealt with several, and I wonder if I know the person. In my previous experience, shipments usually take about 10 days from France, but it depends on how quickly it is sent. Some sellers live in small countryside villages, and mail can take a little longer to process within the French mail system.

Chris 

[FilthyBroke]

I picked up Michiner's book from a VCoins seller last summer for about $150, and I agree that it's the most comprehensive guide available to us.  It doesn't include all jetons, but is has tons of them. I just look through the pictures sometimes, getting ideas for my "want list".  Even the price guide in the back is quite helpful, even though it's outdated it gives a reference point on rarity as compared with other jetons. 

My order was with INumis, whom I've ordered a few times from before flawlessly.  Another order was with Phillipe Saive, my first order with him.  Over Christmas I had a few orders out that took five weeks to arrive from France, so I'm not sure what to expect right now.  I read where their customs was recently  changing policy or something, causing delays.  I've found that the few I've dealt with from over there have been quite professional and courteous, so I trust there will be no problems.

[cpm9ball]

Nope! I'm not familiar with those.

It was a few years ago that there were terrorist threats in France which caused them to shut down the normal mail sytems for US deliveries. At first, they were holding onto the mail, but when things really started to pile up, they started trucking it to Spain for transport by boat. Mail was taking six weeks to get here.

Chris