Guillaume Dupré (c. 1579-1640), Henry IV and Marie de Medici, large uniface bronze medal, 1605, jugate busts of Henry IV and Marie de Medici, he facing threequarters right and she in profile behind him, Henry wearing elaborate armour, mantle and the Order of the Holy Ghost; signed and dated below truncation, G DVPRE F 1605 (and with incised 1605 on truncation), 185mm (Jones 19a; Mazerolle 643; Rouhette & Tuzio 63; Scaglia 459; Scher, Currency of Fame, 146; Scaglia 459; Smolderen 10), contemporary cast of exceptional quality and sharpness with the guide lines showing on either side of the lettering (reverse with incuse image), very rare Provenance: John R. Gaines collection.Guillaume Dupré's work, “represents the last flowering, in France, of the tradition of medallic portraiture first developed and brought to perfection in sixteenth-century Italy....he was superbly competent at modelling wax, capable of translating his sitters’ features into dignified and characteristic images in exquisite low relief... [and] Finally, Dupré was a supreme technician, perhaps the best bronze-founder ever to have made medals” (Mark Jones, in Currency of Fame, 1994, pp. 319-320). This medal is a variant of that produced two years earlier to celebrate the birth of the Dauphin (see lot 38).

Estimate: GBP 8000 - 12000