FRANCE. Charles Bessand Bronze Medal, 1902. Paris Mint. UNCIRCULATED.
Weight: 152.5 gms; diameter: 68mm. By JC Chaplain. Obverse: Portrait of Bessand facing left, CHARLES BESSAND. AETATIS SUAE LXXII around; Reverse: At 6 o'clock a sincere and moving motif of two roses (likely punning on the name of the department store the "Beautiful Garden"), situated between the handles of a pair of scissors, the blades open at a narrow 15-degree angle, A CH[ARLES] A[LLOEND] BESSAND LE PERSONNEL DE LA BELLE JARDINIERE EN RECONNAISSANCE DE QUARANTE ANNÉE DE BIENVEILLANT DIRECTION 24 MAI 1902. Rim: Stampled "BRONZE" with cornucopia hallmark. Charles-Honoré Alloend-Bessand (1829-1915), was a prosperous businessman most closely associated with the celebrated Paris La Belle Jardinièr department store near the Pont-Neuf. Chaplain's commission for this memorial portrait medal may have been connected in some way to another of his earliest medallic works of 1871, a prize medal presented by La Belle Jardinière to employees and associates (Mazerolle 7). Bessand was an Officer of the Légion d'Honneur and a former President of the Tribunal de Commerce de la Seine. This medal was the basis of one of Chaplain's more significant public monuments, also executed in 1902. A large plaquette of the obverse portrait of Bessand is fixed within his tombstone within Paris's largest, and most heavily visited, cemetery, Père Lachaise; the stone is engraved with a memorial inscription similar to that on the reverse of Chaplain's medal as well: CH. H. ALLOEND BESSAND, DIRECTEUR DE LA BELLE-JARDINIÈRE, ANCIEN PRÉSIDENT DU TRIBUNAL DE COMMERCE DE LA SEINE, OFFICIER DE LA LÉGION D'HONNEUR, 18 SEPTEMBRE 1829-7 JUIN 1915. References: - Domenico Gabrielli, Dictionnaire historique du Père-Lachaise (2002), 36 - Deneken, J. C. Chaplain-Ausstellung Medaillen, #84
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From the Stephen R. Parks Collection of Medallic Arts.

Estimate: $100.00- $200.00