Product Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894. Excerpt: ... MEDALS AND MEDALLIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, RELATING TO ENGLAND, BY FOEEIGN AETISTS. In this paper I wish to bring before the Numismatic Society the most important and typical specimens of modern medallic work by foreign artists which relate to England. Amongst these will be found, I believe, not only some of the finest modern medals, but some by artists (as Vechte, Roty, Pistrucci, and Scharff) for whose works a place may justly be claimed, side by side with the works of art of any age. By selecting exclusively the work of foreigners, the author does not wish to disparage English productions. England has the beautiful work of the Simons1 to boast of, not to speak of some more modern artists. Moreover, surely the appreciation of art should be in an international spirit, and the French seem to recognise this in placing some pictures by modern English artists with their own pictures in the Luxembourg Gallery. In the same liberal spirit England has not been 1 One may well be astonished to see that amongst the French medals in the Tresor de Numismatique, Simon's pattern-coins of Oliver Cromwell are claimed as probably the work of Jean Warin! That the Simons may have been influenced by French work is quite another question. B behindhand as regards her employment of foreign medallists; quite recently, indeed, the Corporation of the City of London has set an example by employing, as well as English artists, such foreign medallists as A. Scharff, of Vienna, and Charles Wiener, of Brussels. I learn, however, that Scharff was employed by the Corporation only indirectly, through the firm of Elkington & Co., to whom we are also indebted for the beautiful works executed by Morel Ladeuil in this country. Many of the following medals are personal, but others have h...
