101171 | FRANCE. Napoléon I bronze Medal.

101171 | FRANCE. Napoléon I bronze Medal. Issued 1804. The establishment of the School of Mineralogy at Mont Blanc (39mm, 42.21 g, 12h). By J. P. Droz and N. G. A. Brenet in Paris.

 

NAPOLEON EMPEREUR, laureate head right / Mont Blanc (as an old man of colossal size), crouching facing and lifting large rock under which two miners are working; in two lines in exergue, ECOLE DES MINES DU / MONT BLANC. Edge: Plain.

 

Bramsen 471; Julius 1498; d'Essling 1121; Zeitz 34. Gem Mint State. Rich red-brown surfaces, with a great deal of brilliance remaining. Popular allegorical type.

 

One of the iconic types within the celebrated Neoclassical Napoleonic series, this medal features an expressive and intricate anthropomorphization of the mountain, presenting it as an old man, balding and with a rather robust, unkempt beard. As one travels down further from his face, the beard transforms into a waterfall in which fish swim. Under his right hand, two miners are at work—one hacks at the earth with an axe, while the other pushes a minecart.

 

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