Ancient, British and World Coins, Tokens, and Historical Medals

United States of America, Thomas F. Bayard, 1897, a uniface cast bronze-plated medal by Effie Stillman, bust right, 104mm (Attwood, Artistic Circles, p.32, 26; BM Acq. 1978-82, p.75, 52). Very fine and very rare (£90-120)

Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-98), Democratic senator from Delaware, 1869-85; secretary of state under President Grover Cleveland, 1885-89; US Ambassador at the Court of St James’s, 1893-97. The Bayards, an American family descended from French Huguenot refugees, had been prominent in US public affairs for over 200 years. T.F. Bayard’s great uncle, John Bubenheim Bayard (1738-1807), was speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1777-78; at least five members of the family served as senators from Delaware between 1797 and 1929.
Effie Stillman (1872-1911), one of the ‘Slade girls’, studied under Desvergnes; her medallic work is infrequently met with