Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

France, Paul Segond, 1905, a bronze plaque by A.L.M. Charpentier, bust left, rev. Segond with three assistants and a nurse preparing to deliver a baby on an operating table, 81 x 62mm (PBE 160; Coll R. Marx –; Storer 3337; BM Acq. 1978-82, pl.39, 47; BDM VII, 176; cf. Arethuse 19 [1928], pl.xvi, 4; cf. DNW 68, 1665). About extremely fine, rare (£120-150)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Art Medals formed by Hans-P. Wipfler.

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Plate XIII. Paul Segond (1851-1912), gynaecological surgeon, elected Professor in 1905. This most interesting plaque, depicting perhaps the first realistic representation of a physical birth in a numismatic context, aroused considerable comment when it was shown at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1906. M. de Foville, a contemporary of Forrer, said that it had “un puissant portrait,” while on the reverse “Charpentier a gravé, non pas une allégorie, mais le tableau observé avec la franchise la plus nue d’une opération chirurgicale: le cadre étroit d’une médaille admet difficilement un tableau réel comme la vie et pourtant M. Charpentier réussit par l’intransigeance même de sa sincérité à animer cette scène, purement et simplement exacte, dans le dureté du bronze”