- Museum number
- M.637
- Description
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Cast silver medal. (whole)
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Bust of Jean-Louis de La Valette, right, wearing armour, a cloak and a ribbon round his neck. (obverse)
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A lion seated in a landscape, watched by a fox from its den to the right, turns to a Fury carrying torches to the right. (reverse)
- Production date
- 1607
- Dimensions
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Thickness: 1.00 - 6.50 millimetres
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Diameter: 53.50 millimetres (excluding rim)
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Diameter: 54.500 millimetres
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Weight: 53.18 grammes
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Jones 2
Jean Louis de Nogaret de La Valette (1554-1642), favourite of Henri III, Captain General of the French Infantry and duc d'Epernon 1585, Admiral of France and Governor of numerous provinces including Normandy 1587. Resigned the Admiralty of France and the governorship of Provence but gained that of Limousin in 1596. Served in the campaigns against the Duke of Savoy in 1600 and the Maréschal de Bouillon in 1605-6. The latter ended with an advance on Bouillon's principality of Sedan, which alarmed its German neighbours (see 8). D'Epernon was sent on a mission of reassurance to Metz and Strasbourg and a letter dated 30 June 1607 from Jean Durant at Metz to the government of the latter recalled that 'médailles ou effigies ... vous furent lors promises par mond. sr. le duc d'Espernon'. These were to be delivered by Monsieur Gravisset, from Paris, and were to be distributed by the recipient of the letter, Jean Philippe Böcklin (see 5). Given the intended destination of the medal, it may be that the lion on the reverse symbolises Strasbourg, situated between France and the Empire.
Other examples:
(a) Cabinet des Médailles, Bibliothèque Nationale, 58 rue de Richelieu, 75084 Paris, France (BN, Paris), Sér. Icon. Fr. 2138, cast bronze, 54 mm, with loop for suspension.
(b) BN, Paris, Sér. Icon. Fr. 2127, cast silver, pierced, 56 mm.
(c) BN, Paris, Armand-Valton 2067, cast bronze, 57 mm.
(d) BN, Paris, Armand-Valton 1068, cast bronze, 56 mm.
(e) National Gallery of Art, 6th Street and Constitution Avenue, Washington DC, 20565, USA, Kress no. 557, cast bronze, 55 mm.
(f) CM, Los Angeles, Daniels Coll. B-T-4, cast silver, 56 mm.
(g) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, cast bronze, 57 mm.
(h) Metropolitan, New York, cast bronze, 54 mm.
(i) Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, Spain (Madrid), cast silver, 54 mm, 56.5.
(j) Madrid, cast bronze, loop above.
(k) Musée des Beaux-Arts, Palais Saint-Pierre, Lyon, France, gilt bronze, 55 mm.
(1) Musée du Louvre, Paris 1e, France, OA9163, cast bronze, 56 mm (53.5 mm excl. rim). From the Davillier donation, 1883.
(m) Albert I Royal Library, Brussels (Brussels), bronze, 55 mm.
(n) Brussels, bronze, 56 mm.
(o) Leiden, bronze, pierced 54 mm (52 mm excl. rim).
(p) The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, inv. no. 132, silver, 56 mm.
(q) Sammlung von Medaillen, Münzen und Geldzeichen, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
(r) V&A, A354-1910 (Salting Bequest), bronze, 55 mm. Loop
removed.
(s) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1833 mss. cat. no. 972, bronze, 54mm. Aftercast.
(t) Ashmolean, bronze, 55 mm. Aftercast.
(u) National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary, bronze, 56 mm.
Bibliography:
1. J. de Bie, Les familles de la France 1634, p. 95, no. 61 Reverse.
2. Receuil des médailles, 1685, fol. 29 v.
3. Pelli Uotnini illustri 1775, no. 87.
4. T.N. Méd. Fr. II pl. 15 no. 2.
5. E. de Bouteiller and Eugene Hepp Correspondence politique adressé au magistrat de Strasbourg par ses agents a Mets Paris 1882 p. 20.
6. Mazerolle II no. 656.
7. G. Migeon, Catalogue des bronzes au Louvre no. 589.
8. Léo Mouton Le duc et le roi Paris 1924 p. 78.
9. F. Alvarez-Ossorio, Catalogo de los medallas de los siglos XV y XVI p. 234 no. 320.
10. Pollard Kress no. 557.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- M.637
- C&M catalogue number
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MF2 (Jones 2) (69) (22)
