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首席收藏网 > 数据中心 > Stack's Bowers and Ponterio > SBP2019年11月巴尔地摩#3-John Adams集藏

Lot:2055 1781 (i.e. March-April 1789) Daniel Morgan at Cowpens reverse cliche. As Betts-593. White metal. Ori

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SBP2019年11月巴尔地摩#3-John Adams集藏

2019-11-15 05:00:00

2019-11-15 06:00:00

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1781 (i.e. March-April 1789) Daniel Morgan at Cowpens reverse cliche. As Betts-593. White metal. Original striking. Workshop of Augustin Dupre. 55.2 x 55.3 mm, 285.4 grains. 1.8 - 2.3 mm thick. Choice Mint State.Plain trimmed edge. Paper backed, with fiber covering most of the surface and layered laid paper at center, where a round area of ancient adhesive retains a fragment of a second sheet. Deep pewter gray with areas of lighter silver, most prominent in the upper field. A bit granular and somewhat worn, not as carefully preserved as the choice splasher in the previous lot (the imaginative among us may wonder if this was one of the cliches stolen from Jeffersons quarters in February 1798 by York - who was enslaved at Monticello - then sold by him and subsequently lost). Some verdigris is present beneath VICTORIA and among the design details closest to the open field. All lettering and design elements remain clear, and despite some minor marks no significant flaws are present. The hallmarks present on this original Dupre die that serve as distinguishing characteristics compared to the Barre copy are present here, with the graver lines beneath X of VINDEX most easily seen. Aside from the reverse cliche in the Bibliotheque Nationale, the only other Morgan reverse splashers known to us are those present in matched sets, making this a great rarity and a unique opportunity.<p><strong>A Note On Trials: Cliches, Epreuves, and Splashers </strong><p><p>The Adams Collection of Comitia Americana and related medals is uniquely enriched by several specimens of a unique form of medallic production that is known by several different names. Typically struck from a die in its earliest state, usually before hardening, these trials were called epreuves - proofs - in the original French correspondence between Dupre and Duvivier and the Founding Fathers charged with the acquisition of the medals the Continental Congress authorized. In more modern numismatic literature, they are more often called cliches or splashers, the latter term being a fair description of just how these trials were made.<p>Unhardened dies are incredibly susceptible to damage, as 18th century die steel (and modern steel today) is brittle before it is hardened by quenching. Once a die is hardened, modification becomes very difficult, so if changes need to be made, they need to be done in that fragile, unhardened state. Engravers in major mints - Paris especially - were accustomed to making soft metal impressions as something of a proofreading copy, enabling the negative die to be viewed in the positive in rough draft form. Wax impressions were liable to leave bits of wax in the interstices of design elements, thus engravers settled upon tin (usually called "white metal" in modern numismatic circles) as the best medium.<p><p>Tin melts at 450 degrees Fahrenheit, a low enough melting point to be accomplished in any small workshop. A ladle full of molten tin poured onto a surface will cool and harden fairly quickly, but remain soft long enough that a die can be easily pushed into it by hand, leaving a relatively durable impression in medal. Most often, medalists would find a piece of scrap paper - a note, a newspaper, a book page - to pour the tin atop, thus preventing their workspace from getting scorched and making the tin sheet somewhat easier to lift and trim. <p><p>These splashers were not intended to be medals, or even permanent, but simply a temporary way to display the state of the die in the positive before its devices were rendered immovable. Each was personally crafted by the engraver in his shop. In the case of the Comitia Americana medals, the epreuves made by Duvivier, Dupre, and Gatteaux were ultimately intended to be viewed and handled by themselves and those close to the process. Benjamin Franklin reviewed the epreuves of the De Fleury medal between April 20 and May 4, 1780, then made recommendations regarding the lettering in the obverse exergue that were adopted by Duvivier. He later did the same with his Libertas Americana medal, correcting a spelling error on the reverse. Engraver Augustin Dupre retained many of his splashers in his personal collection, some of which found their way into institutions in France and the United States, some of which are in the present sale.<p><p>Thomas Jefferson used cliches as a spendthrift (and lightweight) way to collect all the medals of the Comitia Americana series, assembling a set for himself and another for his Virginia countryman James Madison. As he was preparing to depart Paris in September 1789, he wrote to Madison to let him know of the boxes he was shipping, including a box of books and several crates full of Houdons John Paul Jones busts that the sitter wanted to have distributed in America. <p><p><em>I have put a collection of the proofs in tin of the medals voted by the U. S. (except two, of which the dies are in America) the medals themselves not being allowed to be taken, I desired the workmen to let me have two sets of their last proofs; for their manner is, as their work proceeds, to make impressions of it in pure tin, in order to correct &c. These proofs are in fact more delicate than the medals themselves, and the last of them shew the impressions complete. I have had them arranged in a frame, under glass &c. & beg your acceptance of them.</em><p><p>By "delicate," Jefferson did not mean fragile, but well-detailed. The modern whereabouts of these sets are unknown; it is very possible that some proportion of either of these sets are in the current sale.<p><p>Jeffersons set left Monticello in February 1798 in the hands of an enslaved man named York, who Jeffersons son-in-law and overseer, the abusive drunkard Thomas Mann Randolph, called "allmost (sic) an idiot." Randolph told Jefferson that the thief had confessed, listing off an inventory of items from Jeffersons chambers including "some impressions in lead & tin of Dies of the Medals & Coins." He continued "I have some hope of recovering the proofs of Medals (tis from the description I conclude they are out) I have traced one to a Negroe of the neighbourhood who bt. it of York but he says he has lost it." The historical record on the theft and recovery thereafter falls silent; Jefferson wrote several consecutive letters to Randolph after the receipt of this letter but never acknowledged the incident. Two different men named York were enslaved by Jefferson concurrently, one of whom was inherited from the estate of Jeffersons father-in-law in 1774 and described as a "Waterman," the other of whom was born in 1781 and labored at Monticello. Presumably the York involved here was the latter of these two, aged 17 at the time of his act of resistance against Jeffersons authority.<p><p>Today, cliches of each of the Comitia Americana medals are extremely rare, with populations in the low single digits. There is not a single issue in this format that is known to the extent of 8 or 10 pieces. Matched sets of obverse and reverse are the exception rather than the rule. Each of the survivors is an accident, a piece that was made to serve a purpose at a moment in time, not produced for long-term preservation in a cabinet. Their historicity is exceptional, as each survivor was not only in the hands of the medals engraver, but likely in the hands of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, David Humphreys, or a small number of others. Their rarity surpasses that of their normally struck cognates in nearly every circumstance.<p><p>With the possible exception of the Charles Senter Collection, sold at auction in 1933, no cabinet has ever included such a wide array of these historic rarities as the John Adams Collection.<p><strong>The Battle of Cowpens</strong><p><strong>The Action:</strong><p>The day after Christmas 1779, Sir Henry Clinton and General Charles Cornwallis left British-occupied New York with more than 8,000 men. Their destination was Charleston, South Carolina, and upon their arrival the focus of the Revolutionary War became the struggle to win the hearts, minds, and battlefields of the Carolinas. Clinton and Cornwallis laid siege to Charleston beginning in April 1780, and the following month they controlled the city. Their army made its way to the middle of South Carolina and encamped near the town of Camden, where Horatio Gates, the newly appointed commander of the Southern Department, encountered Cornwallis force in August 1780. Gates was soundly defeated, his force decimated, his reputation essentially destroyed. Cornwallis and his forces, including reviled Banastre Tarleton, captured the tiny hamlet of Charlotte soon thereafter, then made their way back to winter camp in central South Carolina, in the town of Winnsborough.<p>Following Gates relief from command, General George Washington dispatched a member of his "military family" to the Southern Department: Nathanael Greene. Greenes strategy revolved not around direct large-scale confrontation, but fleeting contact and costly chases, meant to expose the British and their Loyalist partisans to guerrilla attacks and keep their divided forces far from supply lines. The October 1780 American victory at Kings Mountain, along the North Carolina / South Carolina border, bolstered the Patriot cause in the Upcountry. Greene had made his winter camp in Cheraw, in the eastern Pee Dee region of South Carolina, but a portion of his troops under General Daniel Morgan continued to move through the backcountry. Cornwallis dispatched Tarleton to give chase with a force of just over 1,000 men, mostly British regulars.<p>Morgan chose the place he would permit Tarleton to meet his men: at the Cowpens, a pasture near the North Carolina state line close to modern Spartanburg. Morgan, known for his team of crack riflemen, decided to capitalize upon the British stereotype that American militiamen would quickly retreat. He ordered his militia to do just that, then move to the rear, reform, and wait for Continental regulars to break through the British line.<p>Holding the rear high ground, his plan worked like a charm, finished off by an infantry line held together by Col. John Eager Howards leadership and a cavalry charge led by Col. William Washington as the denouement. Morgan described his defeat of Tarleton as "a devil of a whipping." Congress agreed, and selected him to receive a gold medal, while both Howard and Washington were awarded silver medals. Only Cowpens and the 1779 reduction of Stony Point were recognized with three medals. <p>After the victory at Cowpens, Greene and Morgan reunited and moved north, meeting Cornwallis at Guilford Court House in March 1781. With his force badly weakened after the battle, Cornwallis marched for Wilmington, on the North Carolina coast, to regroup. His next, and final, stop would be Yorktown.<p><strong>The Resolution:</strong><p><em>The United States in Congress assembled, considering it as a tribute due to distinguished merit to give a public approbation of the conduct of Brigadier General Morgan, and of the officers and men under his command, on the 17th day of January last; when with eighty cavalry, and two hundred and thirty-seven infantry of the troops of the United States, and five hundred and fifty-three militia from the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, he obtained a complete and important victory over a select and well appointed detachment of more than eleven hundred British troops, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton; do therefore resolve,</em><p><em>That the thanks of the United States in Congress assembled, be given to Brigadier General Morgan, and the officers and men under his command, for their fortitude and good conduct, displayed in the action at the Cowpens, in the State of South Carolina, on the 17th of January last:</em><p><em>That a Medal of Gold be presented to Brigr Genl Morgan representing on one side the action aforesaid particularising his numbers, the numbers of the enemy, the numbers of killed, wounded and prisoners and his trophies with the inscription patria virtusis [undecipherable], and on the other side his bust with his name and this inscription: Ipse agmen the figure of the General on horseback leading on his troops in pursuit of the flying enemy, with this motto in the Exergue Fortus Fortuna Juvat Virtus Unita Valet.</em><p><p><em>That a medal of gold be presented to Brigadier General Morgan, and a medal of silver to Lieutenant Colonel W. Washington, of the cavalry, and one of silver to Lieutenant Colonel Howard, of the infantry of the United States; severally with emblems and mottos descriptive of the conduct of those officers respectively on that memorable day:</em><p><em>That a sword be presented to Colonel Pickens, of the militia, in testimony of his spirited decisive and magnanimous conduct in the action before mentioned:</em><p><em>Resolved, that a sword be presented to Lieutenant Colonel Howard of the infantry, and one also to Lieutenant Colonel Washington of Recommitted. the Cavalry of the federal army each, that their names may be transmitted honourably to posterity renowned for public virtue and as testimonies of the high sense entertained by Congress of their martial accomplishments.</em><p><em>That Major Edward Giles, aid-de-camp of Brigadier General Morgan, have the brevet commission of a major; and that Baron de Glasbeech, who served with Brigadier General Morgan as a volunteer, have the brevet commission of captain in the army of the United States; in consideration of their merit and services.</em><p><em>Ordered, That the commanding officer in the southern department, communicate these resolutions in general orders.</em><p><em>- Continental Congress Resolution of March 9, 1781</em><p><strong>Daniel Morgan at Cowpens</strong><p><strong>The Acquisition:</strong><p>When Benjamin Franklin left Paris having only completed the medal for De Fleury, it fell to Robert Morris to write to Franklins replacement, David Humphreys, in June 1784 with a list of medals for which he would be responsible. A little less than a year later, Humphreys wrote back to Congress with an update. "Some time after my arrival here," Humphreys wrote in March 1785, "I received the enclosed letter from [Robert Morris], accompanied with a list of medals, etc., and a description of those intended for General Morgan and Colonels Washington and Howard." And then the excuses began. "Upon the receipt of these documents I did not delay to make the proper inquiries from the characters who were the best skilled in the subjects of this nature … Being informed at the same time that the description of the medals for General Morgan, etc., was not in the style and manner such medals were usually executed, I took the liberty of suspending the execution of them, until I could learn whether it is the pleasure of Congress to have them performed exactly in the manner prescribed."<p>Humphreys seems to have back-burnered Morgan and the other Cowpens medals rather permanently after that. He finished the medals for Horatio Gates and Nathanael Greene before departing Paris. The rest fell to Humphreys replacement, Thomas Jefferson.<p>When Thomas Jefferson took the baton from David Humphreys, all three of the Cowpens medals were handed off, along with General Washingtons gold medal, without so much as an agreement with an engraver. Humphreys wrote to Jefferson in April 1786 to let him know that these four medals would be entirely his responsibility "because the designs for them have not been in readiness for execution until the present time. Nor can that for Genl. Morgan be commenced without farther information of the numbers killed, prisoners &c in the action to be perpetuated. These documents I will endeavor to get the Secretary at war to forward immediately."<p>Jefferson pulled a Humphreys. He procrastinated. Augustin Dupre, Paris most esteemed medallic engraver of the era, delivered the finished Nathanael Greene medal to Jefferson on February 13, 1787. It had been nearly a year after Jefferson took on the Comitia Americana project, but precious little had been accomplished in the interval. Following his meeting with Dupre, Jefferson would forget about the project for another full year. Finally, in January 1789, Jefferson picked up his quill and wrote to Dupre: "Mr. Jefferson having received orders concerning medals to be struck would like to talk about them with M. Dupre, if he will please do him the honor to call on him to-morrow morning before eleven oclock." After taking the best part of three years off, Jefferson was suddenly in a rush. It must have thrilled the Frenchman to no end.<p>On February 13, 1789, Jefferson sent Dupre the approved designs and inscriptions for the John Paul Jones and Daniel Morgan medals. Dupre made quick work of the Morgan medal, arguably his masterpiece. He finished it before the Jones medal and Jefferson carried Morgans gold medal home with him in September 1789.<p><strong>The Presentation:</strong><p>Daniel Morgan started to wonder where his medal was sooner than most recipients and began asking questions soon after the war was over. He wrote to one of Virginias delegates to the Continental Congress, John F. Mercer, and to Secretary of War General Benjamin Lincoln, in February 1783.<p><em>The Honorable Congress after the action at Cowpens thought proper to vote me a Medal for my conduct in that affair, and as such an acknowledgement of my countrys approbation could not but be flattering to the mind of a soldier I have made frequent application to get, and have been as frequently disappointed. Gen. Lincoln once informed me that nothing prevented its being sent to me but the low situation of finances, and I should have it as soon as there was money to be had to defray the Expense. Now sir, I not only wish you to expedite the making of it, but that you may also pay some attention to the manner in which it may be done, and with devices properly emblematical of the affair. I have so good an opinion of your taste and general knowledge as to wish to submit the matter entirely to your discretion, the expense cannot be considerable, and I flatter myself the Financier on a proper application would advance a sum sufficient to defray it, especially to gratify the inclinations of a man whose principal aim it has been to obtain his Countrys applause to his conduct.</em><p>Mercer wrote back in April 1783. <p><em>The change in our circumstances which the late pacification has made will now permit the Secretary of War to carry into immediate execution a Resolve of Congress directing him to furnish the medals voted to those whose Distinguished Merit has drawn that mark of applause and gratitude from their Country during the late War. You may depend on my attention to yours, and if I have any talent at Design (which by the way I doubt extremely) it shall be aided by the assistance of those whose imagination I esteem as elegant as correct, and I hope will eventually produce what ought to equal your expectation from the hands you have committed it to, if it does not meet your approbation.</em><p>Morgan waited patiently for seven more years. On March 25, 1790, the same day Washington sent medals off to the heroes of Stony Point and Morgans fellow veterans of Cowpens, he finally sent Morgan his own gold medal.<p><em>Sir:</em><p><em>You will receive with this a Medal struck by order of the late Congress in commemoration of your much approved conduct in the battle of Cowpens, and presented to you as a mark of the high sence which your Country entertains of your services on that occasion.</em><p><em>This Medal was put into my hands by Mr. Jefferson, and it is with singular pleasure that I now transmit it to you.</em><p><em>I am Sir, with very great esteem, your most obedt servt,</em><p><em>George Washington</em><p><strong>The Daniel Morgan at Cowpens Medal:</strong><p><strong>Obverse:</strong> The traditional reverse was considered the ob.verse by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres and by Jefferson himself. Alas, we hew to numismatic tradition. With flags and cannons - the traditional trophies of war - at left, the goddess America in her traditional garb and holding her traditional shield crowns Morgan, at right, with a laurel wreath. Morgan bows slightly, his sword grounded, with the rural scene of battle seen behind him. Beneath the exergue are the words COMITIA AMERICANA. Around the periphery: DANIELI MORGAN DUCI EXERCITUS or "Daniel Morgan, head of the army."<p><strong>Reverse:</strong> Perhaps the most impressive and evocative battle scene in the realm of American medallic art, at least until the Mexican-American War masterworks of Charles Cushing Wright. Morgan, in the saddle and pointing forward with his sword, leads his soldiers from right to left. The Cowpens flag flies behind him at the front of his troops, who carry their muskets with bayonets fixed. A native ally stabs a fallen British cavalryman in the lower left, while other British troops, one mounted, scramble. A British flag and smoke rise from the left. The legend above VICTORIA LIBERTATIS VINDEX means "Victory is Libertys defender." In the exergue, FVGATIS CAPTIS AVT CAESIS AD COWPENS HOSTIBVS XVII. JAN. MDCCLXXXI means "The enemy chased, captured, or killed at the Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781." In the lower exergue, Dupre signs DUPRE INV ET F or "Dupre conceived and made it."<p><p><p>From the John W. Adams Collection. Acquired from Richard Margolis, January 2012.

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