Auction Catalogue

8 September 2000

Starting at 10:30 AM

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Ancient, British and World Coins. Tokens, Tickets and Passes. Historical and Art Medals. British and World Paper Money.

The Regus Conference Centre  12 St James Square  London  SW1Y 4RB

Lot

№ 927

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8 September 2000

Hammer Price:
£100

France, Henri Bergson, 1928, an Art Deco bronze medal by P. Turin, bust right, reverse allegory of Time with scroll, symbolic waves behind, Greek legend in three lines above and below, 68mm (CGMP p.380; Classens 13; cf. BDW 13, 278). Extremely fine, rare (£70-90)

Issued by the Monnaie in 1931. Henri Bergson (1859-1941), philosopher, the son of a Jewish musician, taught at Clermont-Ferrand and, from 1900, at the Collège de France; during World War I he helped to bring the US into the conflict and afterwards presided over the creation of what became UNESCO. Crippling arthritis forced Bergson into virtual seclusion and this medal was designed by Turin retrospective to him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927 – a prize Bergson was unable to accept in person