GOETZ: Opus 57

cacheman

This showed up today. This is considered the Holy Grail of the entire Goetz collection. It may not be the rarest, but it is the #1 sought after Goetz medal. The dealer I bought this from had seen only one struck silver piece of this Opus in the 30 years he has owned this piece. I was also able to pick this up for less than half its actual value. I want to thank Cosmic for turning me on to the location of this beautiful and rare piece!!!

Opus 57 CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN. UNC, Cast AE, 70mm, 1909. To commemorate the centennial of his birth 1809.

Garneteye

How about a Christmas gift to the forum by putting your entire collection in one post? I realize that this would be quite an effort on your part but it would be great to see them all-perhaps in order of:
Favorite
#
etc.

Dan

oldshep

There is not a better portrait artist in the business. A real beauty!!!
Shep

Aethelred

That is a great Darwin medal! What is the story behind it?

cacheman

I can only go by what's in the only reference book, Kienast, and what I wrote is all I know. I will email a Goetz collector friend, at least he was before I found this piece that he doesn't have, and see what spin he can put on it. All I know is that the commemorative portrait pieces are far and few between.

Anyway, as soon as I hear something I'll post it here. BTW, this piece has an edge punch too...according to my collector friend, the edge punch was added to the extremely rare or choice examples of Opus'. Out of the 40+ pieces I own, this is only the third with an edge punch.

PS: Garneteye, I just found out the other day that I can create a web gallery with my Photoshop 7.0 software program. I intend on getting all the images put together and getting at a minimum a basic one that I'll link to and put in my sig line. I hope to do this sometime in the next week but my time hasn't been mine as I had hoped...I'll still try to get something up though.

Askari

Really gorgeous, Scott!! Usually with a tremendously rare one, you have to settle for one that's impaired.

laurentyvan

PS: Garneteye, I just found out the other day that I can create a web gallery with my Photoshop 7.0 software program. I intend on getting all the images put together and getting at a minimum a basic one that I'll link to and put in my sig line. I hope to do this sometime in the next week but my time hasn't been mine as I had hoped...I'll still try to get something up though.

Can't wait!

Garneteye

What laurentyvan said

Dan

cosmicdebris

Scott that is a great piece as soon as I saw the listing for it I knew I had to send you a PM.

sumnom

That's really impressive. Breathtaking.

Shipcoin

I'm joining to Garneteye (BTW his icon remind something.. or somebody?!) and to Laurentyvan!

cacheman

As promised, here is the response with more info from my Goetz collector friend:

Hi Scott. I am amazed by the quality of this Darwin medal. It really appears to be top shelf.

The Darwin medal is a centennial commemorative of his birth (1809-1909). This piece is made in classic renaissance format with the Portrait on the obverse and Impressa on the reverse. An impressa is an impression of the person's character. It is usually rendered in symbolic terms and can sometimes be very obscure - almost like a code to be broken. In Goetz' use of this form he keeps the symbols familiar and accessible. During the early part of the twentieth century Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection were constantly held up to ridicule and satire in the press. This Reverse design uses the satirical form to depict Darwin and his work. But its humor is gentle and does not attack Darwin's theories but merely reports them in a popular journalistic style. To me it appears that Goetz has turned the tables on humanity by placing the monkey in the Garden of Eden. There the chimp has 'discovered' human remains that perplex him. He sits and contemplates the human skull, just as Darwin has contemplated the meaning of early hominid remains. What makes me think of the Garden of Eden is Goetz inclusion of the snake, the images of the birds and the bees and the inclusion of the human hand laying near to the skull. There is much more to the scene but you get my drift I'm sure. Goetz as we know was very adept at juxtaposing images and symbols to show the irony of a situation or to make his point of view and opinion quite clear to the viewer. What makes Goetz stand out from his contemporaries was his facile mind, his very opinionated nature, his cutting sense of humor and his abundant technical skills and natural artistic ability. -- From some recent reading I have reached a very tentative view that these large bronze casts, edge signed and produced in sharp detailed casts and finished in hand applied patina were produced in editions of 20pcs. The same opus cast in iron were produced in editions of 100 pieces. All others are later Goetz castings done to order either by individual collectors or by his network of retailers such as Shulmann of Amsterdam and a handful of others. I hope this helps a bit.

1jester

Magnificent and very amusing piece, Cache!

cosmicdebris

Some great indepth info. And only 20 pieces!

cacheman

<< <i>And only 20 pieces! >>



And when you take into consideration that the ANA Goetz collection has one and any number of museums do too then it doesn't leave a whole lot of them for lowly collectors...I certainly lucked out on this one Cosmic.

Askari

Well, he confirms my opinion! This may well be the nicest extant example!!

cacheman