Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals and Banknotes

La Joie de Vivre, 1906, a bronze medal by R. Lamourdedieu for the SAMF, naked couple seated on a rock, kissing, reverse young man sat on a rock, contemplating the sun rising, 58mm, edge stamped 138 (Coll. R. Marx 126; BDM VII, 529). Small obverse rim bruise at 10 o’clock, otherwise better than very fine (£50-70)

Very ‘modernist’ style for the time and one of Lamourdedieu’s earliest medals. Forrer, who saw it at the Paris Salon of 1907, described it as a ‘pleasing work’