France Medal Obelisk of Louxor 1836
Copper, 57.0 mm, 108.86g.; Holed; A/LVDOV. PHILIPPVS. I - FRANCORVM. REX. Laureate head of oak to the left of Louis-Philippe I, below signature VATINELLE. R/NILI. DONVM. SEQVANAE. ORNAMENTVM. The obelisk of Louxor between the Nile and the Seine, in the background, three-masts on the sea; signature VATINELLE and emphasis: ERECTVM. D. XXV. OCTOBRI/MDCCCXXXVI.; The obelisk of Louxor was erected as a great pump on October 25, 1836, by the engineer Apollinaire Lebas using elevator machines and gigantic capestans in Place de la Concorde. Coming from the temple of Louxor, he was offered to France by Méhémet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, at the instigation of Baron Taylor and then of Jean-François Champollion, in early 1830.