1889 Washington Inaugural Centennial, Committee of the Celebration Medal. By Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Philip Martiny. Musante GW-1135, Douglas-53. Bronze, Cast. MS-64 (NGC).
112 mm. 4810.0 grains. Unmarked edge. A handsome example of this impressive type. Both sides are predominantly even golden-brown, the color just a tad deeper in isolated field areas. A couple of minor patina breaks on the high points are noted, but all of these blemishes are trivial and have little effect on the overall eye appeal. The quality is solidly Choice, and the eye appeal is strong. The original owner of this medal was author and art critic Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909), the influential editor of Scribner's Monthly (1870-1881) and Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (1881-1909) who was a leading light of the New York artistic and intellectual scene of the period. He was involved in many civic organizations and had close ties to the world of art and design. His son would marry a daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a personal friend, sculpted a plaster model of his family which now resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was also close to many other influential people of the period. Theodore Roosevelt described him as "one of the truest, staunchest, and most delightful of friends, and one of the best of citizens..." upon his passing in 1909. Gilder played a leading role on the Committee on Art and Exhibition for the Celebration of the Centennial of the Inauguration of George Washington as first president of the United States, April 1889. When the idea for a medal for this celebration was spawned, Gilder's participation in the subcommittee on the medal made it a foregone conclusion that Saint-Gaudens would be chosen to design the medal. This medal was designed and conceived by Saint-Gaudens, the massive medallion reflecting his love for Renaissance-style cast medals as an artistic medium, and his former assistant Philip Martiny (later artistic director of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1892-93) created the models from which the medals were cast. The medals were cast in bronze for sale to the public, and many exist today. Gilder and Saint-Gaudens had been friends for a decade by the time these medals were created. When Gilder was shown the finished work, he proclaimed it "the first medal of real artistic value made in this country." He wrote at the time: "I hope that in an indirect way it will have an ultimate effect upon our coinage," a prophetic look nearly two decades into the future. Gilder was not only mentor to Saint-Gaudens, but confidant to Theodore Roosevelt, who used the bully pulpit to force those changes in our coinage in 1907. The crushed and stained lid of an original Gorham box is included. (Total: 1 medal; 1 box lid)
Ex Estate of Richard Watson Gilder; an unnamed Gilder descendant.

Estimate: $1000