1824 Lafayette Portrait Medal by François Augustin Caunois. Silver. Fuld LA.1824.5, Olivier-35. MS-63 (PCGS). Deep gray on the obverse with accents of pale blue and deep golden brown across the entirety. The reverse is mostly lighter silver with faint blue mottling through the interstices of the wreath. The difference in toning on the two sides speaks to long-term storage in an old time collector’s cabinet, likely that of the Garrett family. Lightly hairlined in the fragile reflective fields, but most attractive and very rare in silver. In fact, it has been a decade since we have seen one. This has an exceptional provenance and has been off the market since the 1981 Garrett sale. Before that, it had been just a year shy of a century since its last offering, in Woodward’s March 1882 sale, where it was noted to be “extremely rare in this metal.” From W. Elliott Woodward’s 45th sale, March 1882, lot 675; our (B&R) sale of the Garrett Collection, March 1981, lot 2070.
