Antique French Bronze Portrait Medallions of Louis Xiii, Framed Walnut Shadow Boxes,

Details

Description

Got everything. Here it is:

✦ TITLE:

Pair of Antique French Bronze Portrait Medallions of Louis XIII, Early & Mid … Read more Got everything. Here it is:

✦ TITLE:

Pair of Antique French Bronze Portrait Medallions of Louis XIII, Early & Mid 19th Century, Framed Walnut Shadow Boxes, Marshall Plan-Era Diplomatic Provenance


✦ DESCRIPTION:
History has a weight to it. Hold one of these medallions and you feel it immediately — the specific gravity of heavy cast bronze, the precise depth of a portrait modeled by a hand that knew what it was doing, the warm dark patina of two centuries of careful keeping. These are not decorative objects that happen to be old. They are historical objects that happen to be beautiful.
A matched pair of antique French bronze portrait medallions, each depicting Louis XIII — the Bourbon king who reigned from 1610 to 1643, strengthened the French crown through Cardinal Richelieu, and laid the political foundations that his son Louis XIV would later transform into absolute glory. The two medallions represent different moments in 19th-century French numismatic artistry: one cast in the early part of the century, one from the mid-century — and together they form a subtle study in how the same royal profile was interpreted across a half-century of evolving technique and romantic historical sensibility. Side by side in their frames, the difference is quietly fascinating. The subject is the same king. The artists are separated by a generation. The results are related but distinctly their own.
The 19th Century & Louis XIII
The bronze portrait medallion reached its finest expression in 19th-century France, when the romantic revival of interest in royal history collided with a tradition of medallion casting that stretched back to the Renaissance. French foundries of the period produced portrait medallions of extraordinary technical precision — the relief modeling nuanced and assured, the inscriptions crisp, the patinas developed over decades of natural oxidation into the deep warm brown that no artificial aging can replicate convincingly. The choice of Louis XIII as subject reflects the particular 19th-century fascination with the Ancien Régime, when French collectors and scholars looked back to the Bourbon monarchs with a mixture of nostalgia, historical curiosity, and national pride. These are serious objects made by serious craftsmen for a serious collecting culture.
The Frames
Each medallion is housed in a hand-hewn walnut shadow box frame — not factory-made, not reproduction, but genuinely hand-constructed with the particular character of objects made by someone who worked wood with tools rather than machines. The aged golden yellow velvet matting against which the bronze sits is period-appropriate and beautifully preserved — the color of it, that particular warm gold, does something remarkable for the dark bronze of the medallions, pulling out the warmth in the patina and making the relief modeling read with exceptional clarity. These frames were made for these medallions, and the ensemble has the quality of completeness that comes when objects have been together long enough to belong to each other.
The Provenance
Acquired during diplomatic service in France in 1950 — the Marshall Plan era, the early years of NATO, the moment when Franco-American relations were being rebuilt on the foundations of shared purpose after the war. American diplomats stationed in Paris in those years had remarkable access to quality French historical material through reputable dealers and private estates; the French art market of 1950 was still absorbing the disruptions of the occupation years, and serious pieces were available to knowledgeable buyers at significant private collections. The diplomat who acquired these understood exactly what they were.
The Wall Presence
A pair of framed bronze portrait medallions in walnut shadow boxes is a very specific and very powerful kind of wall object. The relief sculpture reads differently from a painting — it catches and holds light across the day in a way that changes the pieces constantly, the depth of the modeling becoming more or less pronounced as the light shifts. Hung together on a library wall, a study, a gentleman's dressing room, or a narrow hallway with paneled walls, these command attention without demanding it. They work alongside books, alongside maps, alongside the other serious accumulated objects of a life well-examined. They are the kind of thing that guests pick up to look more closely — and then look more closely again.
Condition & Specifications
Very good antique condition. Both bronze medallions retain their original patina, deep and warm with appropriate age. Relief modeling crisp and well-preserved on both. Hand-hewn walnut shadow box frames with beautiful aged character. Aged golden yellow velvet matting. Each medallion approximately 3" diameter. Overall framed dimensions: 9.5"W × 10.5"H × 2.25"D each. Bronze, walnut, velvet. France, early to mid 19th century. U.S. diplomatic collection, Paris, 1950.
From Gentlemanly Pursuits — Montgomery, Vermont. Three decades specializing in authentic New England and Continental antiques.Want to be notified when Claude responds? See less