1777 B. Franklin Américain Portrait Medallion. Fur Cap without Spectacles.

Extremely Rare High-Relief Small Module Franklin One of Five Recorded by Margolis 1777 B. Franklin Américain Portrait Medallion. Fur Cap without Spectacles. By Jean-Baptiste Nini. Margolis-11, Baiardi-Sibille 94, Greenslet GM-5, Storelli-LXII, Villers-Unlisted. Terracotta. 121.0 mm, approximately 9.4 mm at the edge. 264.0 grams. Obverse with incuse signature and date, NINI / F 1777 on truncation, left of coat of arms. B FRANKLIN AMERICAIN around, separated by five stops, with raised plain border. Small pellet in border at 12 o'clock, corresponding to a small fleur de lys impressed in the reverse inward from 10 o'clock. Made with a suspension hole from the top edge through to the back, as typical. Oblique edges finished in a fairly pronounced but thin bevel around the reverse rim. Handsome light orange-brown terracotta is uniform in tone across the entire face. Sharply defined with a uniformly smooth surface texture typical of Nini originals. A small obverse edge chip is noted just past 2 o'clock affecting only the outer border, while the reverse is free of any such impairment. Rare, and nicer than most seen of these earlier high-relief types. Small-diameter medallions in higher relief like this are believed to predate the lower-relief designs that saw wider distribution. There are multiple variants, yet all are very rare and command significant premiums over the more widely distributed Margolis-17 type, in low relief. In Margolis' detailed study, he located only five of this variety, including this, discovered in a secondary find of his holdings (along with the M-17 in the sale), explaining why it was not included in the primary offering of his Nini medallions in our Spring 2024 sale. Others were noted at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Blois, France; the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and in another private collection, the latter example curiously missing its reverse fleur de lys. A direct comparison with an example of Margolis-10, this same type but without the obverse pellet at 12 o'clock and fleur de lys, reveals that they were made with precisely the same mold. If this is true of all Margolis-10 and 11 medallions, then they are numbered in exactly the sequence of production - all bearing the pellet, an addition to the mold, were made after all those without it. Provenance: From the Richard Margolis Collection. Earlier from our (Stack's) Americana Sale of January 2009, lot 5657.

Estimate:$1

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