PREVIEW: THE SILICH COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL & ART MEDALS: PART 1: 6 MARCH

David Nicholas Silich (1944-2018) amassed an extraordinary collection, and this is the first of eight auctions that Noonans will hold over the next four years to disperse work by over 900 artists, medallists and sculptors: in total around 3,500 pieces.

“The decision to catalogue it alphabetically by artist is a road infrequently travelled outside mainland Europe, but was taken in order to demonstrate the vast range of medallic sculpture available to present-day collectors,” says Noonans specialist and Special Projects Director Peter Preston-Morley.

The collection embraces medals from all corners of the globe, from Canada to New Zealand, Chile to Japan, highlighting the extraordinary craftsmanship of leading artists and all brought together by one man’s passion for the subject.

New Zealand-born Silich emigrated to London in his twenties, building a highly successful career in finance. Initially a collector of Renaissance medals, and an early member of the British Art Medal Society, he started collecting in the early 1980s.

As with so many of the world’s leading collectors, Silich was a generous donor, presenting many pieces to the British Museum and other institutions, including Harvard University Art Museum in New York.

Philip Attwood, Keeper of Coins and Medals at the British Museum between 2010 and 2020, singles out Silich’s most exciting donation to the British Museum as a portrait medal of Louis Pasteur cast in glass in 1922 by the jeweller and glass designer Reneì Lalique.

The catalogue here presents a wealth of highlights to choose from. Even those offered at the less expensive end are stunning works of sculpture, such as the 1978 light bronze medal by Therese Dufresne, depicting a bird’s eye view of Manhattan skyscrapers, the reverse showing a network of roads set above the buildings. The estimate is £60-80. (lot 126).

Dating to 1934 and inspired by the Art Deco style of the times is a medal cast to mark the inauguration of the Port Jerôme oil refinery located by the Seine near Le Havre. It had been built over the previous five years by the Rockefeller’s Standard Oil company (later Esso) after the French government ruled that the country should not rely entirely on refined imports but should have the facilities to refine crude oil itself.

The refinery was the first in Europe to employ the process of purifying lubricating oils using phenol. It was linked to the port of Le Havre, where oil tankers landed, by a 35km pipeline. In 1940 the refinery was partly destroyed, but it was rebuilt after the War.

The creation of the refinery also led to the establishment of a garden city next to the site; both remain today.

Such an important moment in the country’s industrial development had to be celebrated with a memorable artwork, and Hungarian-born Gustave Miklos (1888-1967) took the commission.

The result was a cast bronze view of the refinery, the reverse depicting a standing helmeted figure appearing out of the flame, named (L. Brindeau). The 115 x 64mm piece is extremely fine and very rare and is estimated at £600-800.