a close up of a gold coin with an image of a man
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1927 - FRANCE - FRANCE
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Estimate €25,000
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Description
FRANCE - FRANCE Second Empire / Napoleon III (1852–1870). Gold Medal, Universal Exhibition (Grand Medal of Honour), with a burnished finish (PROOFLIKE), 1855, Paris. Obverse: NAPOLEON III EMPEREUR. Bare head facing right, with the signature ALBERT BARRE below. Reverse: EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE AGRICULTURE INDUSTRIE BEAUX-ARTS PARIS 1855. Within a wreath formed of a laurel branch and a palm frond, the coat of arms of the Empire. Around the rim, twenty shields bearing the coats of arms of the participating countries, and a cartouche at the bottom. Divo.234 - Coll.1673 (bronze); Gold – 160.16 g – 59 mm – 12 h With its original green imitation-leather case inscribed ‘EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE DE 1855 GRANDE MÉDAILLE D’HONNEUR’. NGC MS 62 PL (8769665-001). Gold hand hallmark. Proof-like finish. Minimal hairlines in the polished fields on the obverse. Superb, near-mint condition. The 1855 Universal Exhibition in Paris was the first such exhibition in France and the second in the world, following London in 1851. Held on the Champs-Élysées, it attracted over 5 million visitors and saw participation from 28 countries. The two main sections were Fine Arts on the one hand, and Agriculture and Industry on the other. The medal ceremony took place on 15 November 1855 in the presence of Prince Napoleon, President of the Imperial Commission, the Emperor and the Empress, in the great nave of the Palais de l’Industrie, which had been transformed into a vast, magnificently decorated hall. For Agriculture and Industry, the medals awarded were Grand Medals of Honour (our example), Medals of Honour, first- and second-class medals, and honourable mentions. For the Fine Arts, medals of honour, first-class medals (see sale MDC 9 no. 762), second- and third-class medals, and honourable mentions were awarded. Our specimen belonged to Jean-Baptiste Guimet (1795–1871), a chemist and industrialist, founder of the company Henry Merle et Compagnie, the predecessor of Pechiney. Married to a female painter who complained about the high cost of ultramarine blue obtained by grinding lapis lazuli, Guimet, a former student of the École Polytechnique, discovered a process for artificially manufacturing ultramarine and announced his discovery to the Academy of Sciences of the Institut de France. In 1831, Guimet established a factory in Fleurieu-sur-Saône, near Lyon. By 1855, it was the largest ultramarine factory in France. Its output was worth over half a million francs, that is to say, one-tenth of the value of all the ultramarine consumed. This invention earned him numerous medals. The 1855 Exhibition comprised a total of 31 classes (including the three classes for the Fine Arts). Guimet exhibited in Group III (Industries based specifically on physical and chemical agents or relating to science and education) and Class X (Chemical arts, dyeing and printing, the paper, leather and rubber industries, etc.) under exhibitor number 2997. Thirty-four French and foreign manufacturers of ultramarine sent their products to the Exhibition. Guimet exhibited an extra-fine ultramarine, which constitutes his pure blue, a blue for painting, a third for printing, and a fourth for gilding paper and threads. The extra-fine ultramarine exhibited by Guimet at the Exhibition “surpasses, in terms of its richness in colouring matter, the beauty and purity of its shade, and its fineness, all the pure blue ultramarines on display… ; his extra-fine blue is unquestionably the richest and purest blue known’ (Reports of the Joint International Jury, p. 604). He was awarded the Grand Medal of Honour, 10th class, and the title of Officer of the Legion of Honour in Paris in 1855 (Le Moniteur, 16 November 1855, p. 1270). It is also worth noting that Jean-Baptiste Guimet was the father of Émile Guimet, who went on to found the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts in Paris using the collections amassed thanks to his father’s fortune. Bibliography: 1855 Universal Exhibition. Reports of the Joint International Jury. – Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1856 Manufacture of artificial ultramarine. The Guimet factory at Fleurieu-sur-Saône (in Turgan (J.). – Major factories in France. Industrial studies in France and abroad. – Volume 18). Mulsant (E.).- Note on J.-B. Guimet. – Publications of the Linnean Society of Lyon. – 1878, pp. 283–301 https://d10dakqizeg4uw.cloudfront.net/VAE19/1927.mp4
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Auction time 10/15/2026 at 9:30 AM
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