100603 | FRANCE. Académie des Sciences bronze Medal.

100603 | FRANCE. Académie des Sciences bronze Medal. Issued 1909. The Marvel of Aviation (65mm, 115.79 g, 12h). By R. Baudichon.

 

ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES, Icarus flying left, holding in his arms a female / CAELVM PATET IBIMVS ILLAC (the sky is opened, and we shall go that way, —adapted from Book 8 in Ovid's Metamorphoses), various modes of early aviation: balloons, airships, and propeller planes, all flying over a harbor; castle turret to near right, branch in foreground. Edge: «cornucopia» BRONZE.

 

Malpas 424. Choice Mint State. Attractive yellow-brown surfaces, with a charming matte nature. Rare.

 

The quote on the reverse is adapted from one of Ovid's books in his Metamorphoses, chiefly from the story of Dædalus and Icarus, in which master craftsman father Dædalus constructs wings, made from feathers and wax, for his son Icarus, whom he warns against both complacency and hubris—complacency of flying too low to the sea and allowing the dampness to clog the wings, hubris of flying too high near the sun and allowing the heat to melt the wax. Icarus ignored these warnings, flying too close to the sun, and drowning in the sea when the wings failed him. This medal points to the dawn of modern aviation and the hope of continuing to perfect aviation without the perils of Icarus.

 

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