- Museum number
- M.2222
- Description
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Cast silver gilt medal. (whole)
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Facing busts of Henri IV, laureate and wearing armour and Marie de Medici wearing a lace-edged ruff, jewelled collars and an earring. (obverse)
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Shield bearing the arms of Navarre, surmounted by a royal crown. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1601
- Dimensions
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Thickness: 1.00 - 2.90 millimetres
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Diameter: 59 millimetres (excluding rim)
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Diameter: 61.000 millimetres
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Weight: 37.23 grammes
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Jones 2
The chains referred to in the reverse legend are both those of marriage and those on the arms of Navarre. Henri and Marie were married in Lyon on 17 December 1600. The King left on 21 January, to rejoin his mistress, Henriette d'Entragues, marquise de Verneuil while the Queen, travelling slowly, did not arrive in Paris until 9 February 1601. It seems likely that the medal was made early in the year since Marie is shown wearing a closed ruff, in the Florentine style rather than an open ruff, in the French fashion which, according to Bassompierre (see 1) she adopted shortly after her arrival in Paris.
Other examples:
(a) Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris, France (BN, Paris), Sér. Roy 294, cast gold, 61.5 mm.
(b) BN, Paris, Sér. Roy 295, cast silver, 60.0 mm.
(c) BN, Paris, Sér. Roy 296, cast bronze, 60.0 mm.
(d) Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Saint-Pierre, Lyon, France, silver gilt. A poor cast.
(e) Musée du Louvre, Paris 1e, France, OA 784, cast silver gilt, 62 mm (57.5 mm excluding rim). From the Sauvageot donation, 1856.
(f) The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, inv. no. 128, silver, 61.5 mm.
Bibliography:
1. Bassompierre, Journal de ma vie Paris 1870, vol. I, p. 91.
2. T.N. Méd. Fr. II pl. 2 no. 2.
3. Berthold Zeller, Henri IV et Marie de Médicis, p.72.
4. Mazerolle II no. 633.
5. Julia Pardoe, The Life of Marie de Medici, New York 1902, PP. 97-103.
6. G. Migeon Catalogue des bronzes au Louvre, no. 586.
7. Pierre Chevalier, Louis XIII, Paris 1979, p.21.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- M.2222
- C&M catalogue number
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MF2 (Jones 2) (55) (11)
