103473 | UNITED STATES. Anglo-American Peace Centennial bronze Medal.

103473  |  UNITED STATES. Anglo-American Peace Centennial bronze Medal. Issued 1914 (70mm, 140.57 g, 12h). By John Frederick Mowbray-Clarke for the Circle of Friends, and struck by Joseph K. Davison & Sons in Philadelphia.

 

• INTER • FRATRES • BELLVM • VLTIMVM • (the final war among brothers), two nude males grappling with one another; between, two ships firing upon one another; in three lines in exergue, MEDALLIONI • / AMICORVM • / SVMPTIS • // Seminude Victory standing facing, head slightly right, holding open wreath; American eagle to left, British lion to right; to outer right, PAX / PER / C / AN / NOS (peace for 100 years) in five lines; 1814–1914 in exergue. Edge: CIRCLE OF FRIENDS // J.K.DAVISON / PHILA.

 

Alexander SOM-10.1; Marqusee 292; Baxter 312. Choice Mint State. Olive-tan surfaces, with a charming matte nature and some lightly scattered spots noted for completeness. However, an appealing example compared to others of the type, owing to the overall nature in which the Davison patina tends to age.

 

Ex Drewry Family Collection.

 

In the essay that accompanied this piece when originally sold, Circle of Friends organizer and art and literature editor for the New York Times, Charles de Kay, wrote that "...As the globe grows small by means of transportation and telegraph[,] nations become sensitive. War being so easy under modern systems of transportation and finance, it is necessary to provide some means whereby they shall be retarded and minimized[,] if not prevented.... It is obvious that the world cannot afford to be torn to pieces by the ambition or rancor of persons or parties, and that somewhere there must be lodged a recognized power whose duty it is to nip such destructive growths in the bud. There must be a world police established and maintained by the great nations as a less evil than the wars of the past." A noble thought indeed, and yet, by the end of the same month in which this medal was released (June 1914), the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo would spark the world's first great war. A generation later, another would follow. And, reading de Kay's words, one cannot be reminded of our current "modern systems of transportation and finance" and the ease by which some rogue and rather haughty régimes arrive at the folly that is the concept of a stealth victory. In the century-plus since this medal's inception, it is all too clear how little we ever really learn.

 

Upload: 16 April 2026.