Titian Peale's Liberty head design - 1832
RogerB
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Here is a composite of some of Titian Ramsay Peale's designs for a Head of Liberty for U.S. coins. What do modern collectors think, especially compared to Kneass' designs? (Courtesy American Philosophical Society)
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All of the "bust left" views are not too different from what came to pass. They are actually more attractive.
Very attractive. Better than we have now. We had very nice coins in the past.
So the designs for the Liberty head gold is properly: Gobrecht, after Titian Peale
Let's make it a nearly contemporaneous comparison. Here is a WIlliam Kneass design for a Head of Liberty done in 1834. (Courtesy Library Company of Philadelphia)
Most "artistic" designs of the period seemed to follow the same pattern -- pseudo-Classic Greek. Tough to say with any authority who made which design..... ?
While I appreciate the difficulty of transposing female physical beauty to metallic design, I really think it could have been done better... The Peace dollar has a much more attractive depiction of Liberty... The old designs look as if they modeled it on some dowager who just sucked a lemon...Cheers, RickO
Ah, yes -- the very famous, but obscure "Seated Dowager sucking a Lemon" design used for the $2.73 Trade Two Dollar and Seventy-Three Cent Goloid International Trade Coin. This was also known as "Stella's Fella."
The forward lean of Liberty's portrait in the OPs post could be characterized as overly anxious, alert and/or uncomfortable, and not as calming as the more upright portrait of Liberty as was used on U.S. coins. Therefore, while these are nice sketches, I'm happy they weren't chosen.
Maybe that was Wiliam Kneass "Leaning Liberty" version....?
Very nice and artistically done !!!