103373 | GREAT BRITAIN & FRANCE. Cinéma Art Deco bronze award Medal.

103373  |  GREAT BRITAIN & FRANCE. Cinéma Art Deco bronze award Medal. Engraved and awarded circa 1930 to L. S. Saunders by the Thanet Amateur Cinematograph Association for the "Film Story" competition (68mm, 140.03 g, 12h). By Maurice Delannoy at the Paris mint.

 

Nude female facing, emanating as a projection from an old movie projector; around her is an array of implements and instruments for various plot lines; CINEMA in exergue // Cinema screen between curtains and before seats; engraved in four lines on screen: THANET / A. C. A. / FILM STORY / COMPETITION; L. S. SAUNDERS engraved below. Edge: «cornucopia» BRONZE.

 

Jones, Art of the Medal, 425; MdP Musée online MED-936305; Silich III, 992 (this medal). About Uncirculated. A few subtle marks and some mottling of color, but mostly deep olive-brown in hue. A great type for the cinephile or fan of Art Deco.

 

Ex David Nicholas Silich Collection, Part III.

 

As the new medium of film began to grow, so too did competitions within the art, with the decade of the '20's offering advancement on all scales. On the larger scale, events such as the Academy Awards first took place in 1929 in Hollywood. Meanwhile, competitions on the more local scale abounded not just in the United States, but in France and the United Kingdom as well. In the case of this piece, it was awarded to an L. S. Saunders for their contribution to the Thanet ACA (Amateur Cinematograph Association; Thanet District in Kent, England) in the "film story" competition. For a brief review such ACAs (and with references to the Thanet ACA), please see Beyond “The Exhibition Straight-Jacket”: How British Amateur Film Clubs Created an Alternative Distribution and Exhibition Network, 1923-1933, by Keith M. Johnston & Paul Frith.

 

Upload: 18 August 2025.