Circa 1830 C.C. Wright National Academy Exhibit medal. Musante GW-126, Baker-Unlisted but mentioned under B-74. Silver. AU-53 (PCGS).48.8 mm. 620.6 grains. Light silver gray in the obverse field with gentle mottling. The portrait is toned deeply with elements of deep brown and slate, while light gray silver remains on the high points. The reverse is mottled golden brown with varying shades of gray and subtle accents of rose and blue.<p>Uniface and apparently intended as an award medal, this is a very rare variant related to those that follow by the hand of Charles Cushing Wright. Just two are known, this one from the Bushnell and Baker cabinets, and another that we sold in May 2008. Neither is engraved on the reverse, but this one has what appears to be “Muhm” faintly scratched into the field near 12:00, if the medal is turned on a its vertical axis from the obverse.<p>The medal we sold in 2008 was noted as a possible cast and, presumably, like this one, the sonority of a ring test suggested something other than a struck medal. However, this one rings just slightly, though it is subdued, which suggested to us something other than a cast. Close inspection reveals that the medal itself is likely die-struck, but the head is <em>applied</em>! Close study of the edges of the portrait show evidence of lead solder, which would certainly deaden any ring. Interestingly, Musante notes under his entry for the Brooklyn Institute medal (GW-129), that one example is known with a head that has been removed from another medal and fused onto a blank, just as seen here. There is nothing elegant about this simple piece, but it would appear to be an important part of the C.C. Wright story.Ex Charles I. Bushnell, S.H. and H. Chapman, June 1882, lot 1335; William Spohn Baker Collection, to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by bequest, November 15, 1897.
