1909 Maryland Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument Naval Combat Galvano Plaque. Uniface. By Adolph A. Weinman. Bronze. Mint State.

177.8 mm x 131 mm. This bas-relief is an exact galvanic reduction made by Medallic Art Company founding brothers Henri and Felix Weil of the bas-relief design found on the 12' high pedestal of the Maryland Union Soldiers and Sailors Monument located in Wyman Park in Baltimore. It is one of a pair of reliefs on that monument (the other depicting a land combat scene and known as The Charge ) and depicts a naval combat scene in intricate detail, specifically a gun crew servicing and preparing to fire a large cannon on the deck of a warship. The artist's signature A.A. WEINMAN FECIT MCMIX is at lower right, and all is set in a plinth with subtly curved top. Weinman, a renowned sculptor best known in numismatic circles for his 1916 designs for the Mercury dime and Walking Liberty half dollar and its later derivatives, has ably captured the momentary tension just prior to the cannon's firing. The design details are at once intricate yet soft, a dichotomy perhaps emphasized in this handheld reduction from the much larger composition on the monument. The back includes two screw holes for mounting, and also displays the sunken areas of the design and the rough nodules created by the electrotyping process from which galvanos are formed. We offered a silver galvano plaque of this piece's aforementioned ground combat scene counterpart The Charge as lot 67 in our August 2018 ANA Auction, where it realized $3,600. In PCAC's 2013 auction offering of that piece, silver galvanos were described as very rare, with only such artists as Victor David Brenner and Weinman having made them circa 1900. Weinman himself exhibited a bronze version of The Charge's plaque mounted on wood at the 1910 International Exhibition of Contemporary Medals held by the American Numismatic Society, and a bronze version of the naval plaque - presumably identical to that offered here - was given to the ANS by Weinman's son, Robert A. Weinman, also a noted sculptor. The silver plaque that we sold in 2018 also entered the numismatic marketplace via Robert, so one might assume that a silver version of this naval plaque also must exist. All are apparently unique or very rare in each metal. This exquisite plaque of a Civil War naval combat scene will appeal to many cross sections of art and numismatics. Enthusiasts of militaria, weapons, naval combat, the Civil War, Maryland numismatics, and famous coin sculptors will all take notice when this lot falls under the auctioneer's hammer.

Estimate: $400