Ancient, Celtic, British and World Coins, Historical and Art Medals

WORLD ART MEDALS France, Armand Barbès, 1849, a large uniface cast bronze portrait medal by J.-J. Salmson, bust right, 170mm (BDM –). A handsome portrait, good very fine, rare (£90-120)

Armand Sigismond Auguste Barbès (1809-1870), ‘romantic revolutionary’ and politician who twice escaped the death penalty and had sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Barbès was a prime mover in the Société des Saisons, a body that attempted a coup d’état in Paris in 1839; on release from prison in 1848 he conspired against Louis Philippe in the Revolution of 1848-9 and was again imprisoned, only to be released on the orders of Napoleon III in 1854.

An early (and risky) work by the sculptor Jean-Jules Salmson (1822-1902), who could have attracted heavy punishment from the circulation of a laudatory medal such as this
See Plate I