French Shooting Medal Surprise

[Furryfrog02]

I was surfing ebay the other night as one is wont to do when the kids are asleep....and I came across this absolutely beautiful medal. The seller had it listed as a bronze French shooting medal. No diameter or weight were listed and the pictures were a bit fuzzy. I did a quick google search and found it on numista . Everything looked good so I watched for a bit and then when nobody had bid, I tossed the opening bid just to see what happened. Much to my surprise, I won. I happily paid and the next morning the seller sent me a message letting me know they would get it in the mail as soon as possible (Great customer service!). 

Well, the medal arrived yesterday but I was busy helping one of FFIVN's best friend's family pack so they can move to Ohio today 😞 and then taking him to Boy Scouts in the evening. We didn't get home until almost 10pm and I didn't have time to look at the medal in detail. I decided to bring it to work with me just to admire while I sat at my desk. While I was looking at it, I looked around the edge to see if I could find the "BRONZE" marking. To my surprise, I found it but it didn't look like "BRONZE" to me. I had to wait until after work to get home and check it out. 

I was very surprised when I took a picture and zoomed in and saw "2 ARGENT". Weird because in my cursory search, I found a silver shooting medal but it had a different reverse design and specifically said "ARGENT" on the edge. 

A little more searching and I found a 2 more websites in French that showed my medal with the "2 ARGENT" on the edge. It matched the specs as well: 50mm diameter and 64g weight. The metal type was listed as "Argent Vermeil". ANOTHER google search later told me that it was gilt silver. 

Holy crap! I got a silver medal for $7!

I haven't been able to find out a date that these were made/given out beyond possibly 1899-1940. Does anyone know anything about these? Perhaps @Qcumbor? 😉

If it were your medal, what would you do with it? Leave it in its blackend/toned state or dip it in acetone? Would the acetone affect the gold gilt underneath?

 

Lastly, feel free to add any French medals or whatever else suits your fancy. Thanks for looking!

[thenickelguy]

I like older medals from France.

Great snag furry, the reverse seems to translate to Prize of tie offered by the Minister of War

A medal I have

This is a rather large medal, it was described as silver composition, but I was suspecting it is silvered bronze long before the auction ended.
There is not a lot of information on the history of Concours International de Musique
that I can find, but I believe it translates to International Music Competition.

I have read that traditionally in Paris, to start off the summer, there is a festival of music throughout the streets and in various venues. I do believe that this event has occurred for many years without interruption.
Today there are still competitions of singing and playing of instruments.
I have found earlier medals, and one that is almost exactly like this only almost a centimeter smaller and for Algeria dated 1902.
I have found stamps and postcards on the topic but I know little about them too. I did know I especially liked the obverse and it was a must have for me.

[Furryfrog02]

That is beautiful!

[thenickelguy]

I have a few.

Not to hog the thread but this was interesting to me.

1914 Alsace WWI French Bronze Patriotic Medal

The medal was produced early in World War I in anticipation of the reincorporation of Alsace into the French Republic and used for a variety of different purposes, including award by the Red Cross for relief work in Alsace and to military such as the First and Seventh Territorial Battalions of the Chasseurs Alpins who were prominent in the liberation of Alsace. Alsace borders Germany and has been fought over by France and Germany for a long time, being in a strategic location on the west bank of the Rhine. It has been an integral part of France since the treaty of Versailles, but the ethnic origin of the majority of the people is German.

On the obverse is a woman shown in traditional folk costume from the Strasbourg region.
She is wearing a Schlupfkapp, a cap with the giant bow which has become a symbol of Alsace. The bow over time became progressively larger. A black bow is always worn by Protestants and a red bow is worn by Catholic unmarried girls. In some regions Catholic girls may wear a very colorful Schlupfkapp.

On the reverse are White Storks. They nest atop houses and on man made perches.
They migrate to Alsace every year and raise the young during summer. When the young are ready in early fall they fly for the winter.
If a stork should choose your house, local legend says it will bring luck to your family. Today there are over 600 stork couples in Alsace, at least 50 on the rooftops of Strasbourg alone.

 

According to European folklore, the stork is responsible for bringing babies to new parents. The legend is very ancient, but was popularised by a 19th-century Hans Christian Andersen story called The Storks.
German folklore held that storks found babies in caves or marshes and brought them to households in a basket on their backs or held in their beaks in sheets.
The babies would then be given to the mother or dropped down the chimney. Households would notify when they wanted children by placing sweets for the stork on the window sill.
Birthmarks on the back of the head of newborn baby, are sometimes referred to as stork-bite.

 

[Furryfrog02]

How interesting!
Thanks for sharing!

[thenickelguy]

One more

1927 Notre Dame Cathedral Raoul Benard 

A Bronze restrike of Raoul Benard's original 1863 medal.
This was probably struck in 1927 in France. The edge is marked as such.
On the obverse is Notre Dame Cathedral and what I believe in latin,
Ecclesia Parisiensis Beatae Mariae
which translates from Latin to:
Church of Our Lady of Paris
in English.

On the reverse, the image of Mary with Christ Child and guardian angels which is outside of the cathedral, in front of the Rose Window, a famous stained glass 10 meter in diameter window.
Ave Regina Caelorum
translates in Latin to English,
Hail the Queen of the Heavens

I bought this on the morning that the news of Notre Dame was burning broke. At that time I had been obsessed with Exonumia.

Coincidently it was already in my watch list on April 15 2019 but I hit "Buy it Now" immediately. They cost more now than I paid.

[Furryfrog02]

Again, beautiful medal. The French really do some things right, eh? 🙂
I visited Notre Dame in 2003. I was in awe. I was gutted as we watched it burn.

[Qcumbor]

Nice medal @Furryfrog02, engraved by the master engraver Jean Baptiste Daniel-Dupuis (his name is engraved on the right field of the obverse)

The same obverse has been used several times as it seems :

https://www.cgb.fr/tir-et-arquebuse-medaille-prix-du-departement-de-la-seine-ttb,fme_562368,a.html

https://www.cgb.fr/tir-et-arquebuse-medaille-de-recompense-ttb,fme_470218,a.html

https://www.cgb.fr/tir-et-arquebuse-medaille-prix-du-departement-de-la-seine-ecole-de-commerce-ttb-,fme_737276,a.html

I'm afraid it's all I can do for you my friend 🙂

 

Q

[Theodosius]

What a beautiful medal.

Fantastic score!

John

[DonnaML]

Beautiful, @Furryfrog02! I have two Art Nouveau medals by Daniel Dupuis myself:

France 1898, La Source and Le Nid, both by Daniel Dupuis. AE

[Furryfrog02]

Those are beautiful @DonnaML! What are the dimensions?

I have another medal coming in the mail that made me think of you when I got it. I think you have one already but I'm sure you'll like it 🙂

[DonnaML]

Some more French Art Nouveau medals I like:

France 1896. National and Colonial Exhibition, Rouen. Silvered AE by Oscar Roty. Obv. Woman seated r. against tree, barefoot, knitting, against pastoral background, NORMANNIA NVTRIX / Rev. View of City of Rouen, EXPOSITION NATIONALE ET COLONIALE; ROVEN in field above city view; MDCCCXCVI below. 69 mm., 137.3 g.





France ca. 1920. Nude woman eating grapes[?], by Georges Crouzat.



France 1900. Medal for Universal Paris Exposition of 1900, silvered AE by Oscar Roty. 51 x 36 mm. (Distributed to judges and officials of the Olympic Games held in Paris that summer in conjunction with the Exposition.)





France 1900. Another Art Nouveau medal issued to commemorate the 1900 Paris Exposition, this one in AE (53 mm.) by Georges Lemaire. Note the airship, the battleship, and the other tools of science and industry depicted on the reverse.





Finally, a silvered AE plaque in the Art Nouveau style by the French medallist Paul Vannier, 49 x 70 mm., issued for the 1906 "Intercalated" Olympic Games in Athens, which originally were held as official Olympic Games in between the 1904 and 1908 games -- and were intended to be held every four years in Athens in between the regular games, beginning 10 years after the first modern games in 1896 -- with the results counting as official Olympic records. These games were later demoted to unofficial status.

Obv. Athlete stands holding a sword, laurel branch, and victory wreath in right hand, and a shield in left hand; in foreground the Athens Olympic Stadium with crowd; in background the Acropolis, with rising sun/ Rev. Winged angel holding trumpet in left hand to proclaim the victor and and a laurel branch in right hand, flying over an olive grove near the Acropolis; space for inscribing name of participating athlete.

[DonnaML]

5 minutes ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Those are beautiful @DonnaML! What are the dimensions?

I have another medal coming in the mail that made me think of you when I got it. I think you have one already but I'm sure you'll like it 🙂

Thanks. They're both approximately 35 mm. W x 65 mm. L.

[thenickelguy]

Here's Marianne looking a lot to me like Joan of Arc and that may be intended.

 

1917 Battle of Verdun BRONZE and SILVER Medals by S.E. Vernier 

I know the bronze medal is sometimes found presented in a leather pouch accompanied with a folded certificate to French soldiers. 

I don't have the pouch or the certificate that looks like this.

At least I don't think I have it.

This is a more scarce silver medal that is the same size as the bronze one that I have collected.

At 7:12 a.m. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38-centimeter long-barreled gun—one of over 1,200 such weapons set to bombard French forces along a 20-kilometer front stretching across the Meuse River—strikes a cathedral in Verdun, France, beginning the Battle of Verdun, which would stretch on for 10 months and become the longest conflict of World War I.

I believe there were about 143,000 casualties on the Germany side and 162,440 on the French in this battle alone.

World War I Era 1917 France Battle Of Verdun "On Ne Passe Pas" Memorial Medal. Loosly translated, "On Ne Passe Pas" means "We're Not Going", or, more likely "They Shall Not Pass", referring to the German Army.
This battle was so bloody men called it the "Meat Grinder".

This medal was sculpted by S.E. Vernier in 1917. With a reverse text of "Verdun 21 Fevrier 1916", (VERDUN February 21, 1916) this medal measures 37mm (1 7/16 inch) in diameter.

There is also a very similar medal with a loop and ribbon that is to be worn on a uniform.

 

[JeandAcre]

On 7/23/2022 at 7:37 AM, thenickelguy said:

Here's Marianne looking a lot to me like Joan of Arc and that may be intended.

 

1917 Battle of Verdun BRONZE and SILVER Medals by S.E. Vernier 

I know the bronze medal is sometimes found presented in a leather pouch accompanied with a folded certificate to French soldiers. 

I don't have the pouch or the certificate that looks like this.

At least I don't think I have it.

This is a more scarce silver medal that is the same size as the bronze one that I have collected.

At 7:12 a.m. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38-centimeter long-barreled gun—one of over 1,200 such weapons set to bombard French forces along a 20-kilometer front stretching across the Meuse River—strikes a cathedral in Verdun, France, beginning the Battle of Verdun, which would stretch on for 10 months and become the longest conflict of World War I.

I believe there were about 143,000 casualties on the Germany side and 162,440 on the French in this battle alone.

World War I Era 1917 France Battle Of Verdun "On Ne Passe Pas" Memorial Medal. Loosly translated, "On Ne Passe Pas" means "We're Not Going", or, more likely "They Shall Not Pass", referring to the German Army.
This battle was so bloody men called it the "Meat Grinder".

This medal was sculpted by S.E. Vernier in 1917. With a reverse text of "Verdun 21 Fevrier 1916", (VERDUN February 21, 1916) this medal measures 37mm (1 7/16 inch) in diameter.

There is also a very similar medal with a loop and ribbon that is to be worn on a uniform.

 

@thenickelguy, the only time I was in Europe, when I was 11, we toured the battlefield.  It's tough, thinking about it, most of a half century later.  ...And that's just my sh-t.

One thing I'll always need about the earlier middle ages is simply that the scale of violence was so much smaller.  No, people were capable of doing everything that happened there; really, the only redeeming features were the lack of, well, population density and, more to the point, the technology.

[shanxi]

Some French Medals from my Artemis/Diana collection:

 

Medal by Lucien Jean Henri Cariat (1874-1925)

(Cariat received a Honor Award at the Salon des Artistes Francais in 1898)

Medal before 1907, reverse legend reengraved 1932

Obv: APTEMIΣ, Artemis with arrow and dog running right
Rev: EXPOSITION PHILATELIQUE NICE, Le 10 AVRIL 1932
Edge: triangular mark
AE, 49.8mm, 55.1g

 

Medal by François André Clémencin
1878-1950
Ca. 1940

A student of Jules Coutan, Clémencin exhibited at the Salon des artistes français in 1907 and received an honourable mention that year. In 1921, he won a silver medal.

He is responsible for sensual or erotic bronze statuettes, monuments to the dead and medals. (wikipedia)

Obv: Artemis running left, holding bow, dog behind
Rev: CONSEIL SUPERIEUR DE LA CHASSE – FEDERATION DEPARTEMENTALE MORLON, laurel and oak leaves
AE, 52mm, 87g

 

Artemis
Medal by Raymond Delamarre
1890–1986

Raymond Delamarre (1890–1986) was a French sculptor and medalist. His output in both spheres was huge, and he played a major role in the Art Déco movement. (wikipedia)

Obv: ARTEMIΣ, Artemis running left, stag behind, squirrel underneath
Rev: Bow, quiver, horn and rifle
AE, 50mm, 69g
Ref.: Monnaie de Paris M. 2227

 

Claude Léon Mascau (1882-1965)
Brass, 1924, Art Deco
Obv: ARTEMIS, Artemis walking to the left and holding a leaping dog on a leash ) / signed C MASCAEUX
Rev: PRIX DU CONSEIL SUPÉRIEUR DE LA CHASSE (Prize of the high council of hunting
Brass, 5cm, 53g
Ref.: BnF Mascaux.38 var. (reverse)

 

 

Medal by Pierre-Alexandre Morlon
1878-1951
(Morlon created also the french circulating coins)

Obv: UNION FEDERALE DES SOCIETES DE TIR AUX ARMES DE CHASSE, Artemis/Diana Standing right, holding bow, dog behind, signed MORLON
Rev: CHAMPIONAT DE FRANCE
BALL-TRAP “OLYMPIQUE”
1951, 2E Prix,
ILE DE FRANCE
(original design 1931)