A couple of medal additions--more Obstetricians (edited and now added more photos)
Stork
Posts: 5,205 ✭✭✭✭✭
There aren't THAT many OB/Gyn medals out there, but these two arrived in the mail today. It was a good day.
First is a medal by Devreese. Dr. Edouard Kufferath was a Belgian OB, renown as an excellent teacher, and who pioneered using aseptic rules which led to a significant decrease in mother/baby mortality. He also described new techniques and had a set of delivery forceps named after him. I like this medal as it shows him with a model of a pelvis and what appears to be a pelvimetry/measuring device.
The second is by Lancelot-Croce, a French artist who eventually married an Italian and moved to Italy with him. I had spotted this medal very early in my adult collecting days and have been wanting it ever since. Another one of those 10 year finds! And, reasonably priced, in excellent condition, and with its original box.
This one features Dr. Pinard, who has a maneuver for the delivery of twins named after him that is still used today. He also was a proponent and leader in pre/perinatal care and patient education regarding maternal and infant health. The title on the medal "puericulteure" is the masculine version of the current work "puericultrice" which is what a maternal-newborn nurse is now called. The translation on the reverse/bottom is "The milk of the mother belongs to the child".
Now that I have it in hand, I can see a similarity between this one and one of my other all time favorites, also by Lancelot-Croce (The Work of the Barbarians) posted a few times before:
and the detail of the tiny face/hands (the latter is from a silver version showing the hand gripping the fabric):
and
Comments
These are wonderful. Thank you for sharing the images and a bit of history. And the fine details of the second Lancelot-Croce you posted are pretty amazing!
8 Reales Madness Collection
Now that's a subject I never dreamed would be collectible!
Very nice Cathy!
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
A very nice group of medals!
Any idea why the design is different between the silver and bronze?
Probably my photography:
I thought it was interesting how the ladies' hands were in mirror orientation, but looked similar--more specifically the one supporting the baby (not so much the grabbing the drape one as I wrote above).
What part of the design do you see that is different? I don't see any differences.
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My sets: [280+ horse coins] :: [France Sowers] :: [Colorful world copper] :: [Beautiful world coins]
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Never mind. My error. Different perspective.
Great topical occupational tie there Stork. One thing about medals, if you rummage around long enough, and have a bit of luck, imagination and persistence, it seems one can build an interesting collection of just about anything! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks
This is truly a small niche, but it does tend to play into other aspects.
Here is one more OB medal...an older purchase and nice enough. The subject is Professor Couvelaire. Another old school OB with an eponym (a 'couvelair sign is something most people don't want to hear about). Not a visually stunning medal but I like it.
The artist/medallist however is Lavrillier who happens to have designed a couple of the most definitive Art Deco pieces out there. This is one of my other relative 'newps':
Leda and the Swan
This one is a disappointment in terms of condition. I actually have another one in a bit better shape but I can't find the photos, so my second best is shown here.
I sent it to NCS, and they put in a slab which I didn't realize they would do (I had several, some ended up slabbed, some not). Anyway, it was in appalling condition and was returned in a slightly less appalling status. Needless to say it's in a details grade for environmental damage.
Dr. Paul Segond was an early professor in OB/Gyn (and has a specific orthopedic fracture named for him too). This medal celebrates the date he was 'made professor' in 1905.
The scene is often described as a gyn surgery, but a 2012 Baldwin auction describes it as a realistic depiction of the preparation for birth on an operating table--showing Dr. Segond (at the foot of the bed, which is the senior position), three assistants and a nurse administering chloroform. The positioning is correct for the time and the inhaler matches what is known as the 'chloroform cap' so very believable.
The plaquette was shown at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1906 and was considered controversial given the realistic nature of the scene.
One more:
There are three generations of Funck-Bretano and I'm a bit fuzzy on the details trying to google-fu. The grandfather is called an obstetrician, the father a surgeon and gynecologist, and the grandson Jean-Louis a radiologist (or pathologist). I'm GUESSING by the timing this is the middle one, but what is shown on the reverse in the hands of the youth is a set of delivery forceps. So maybe it's the grandfather or maybe the father just didn't get called an obstetrician in the bit of online stuff I scraped together here. I sort of feel like I found more about it but can place where I might have put the documentation.
_ I sort of feel like I found more about it but can place where I might have put the documentation._
I feel your pain; in my case, images, documentation/background and the coins/medals all seem to have minds of their own and tend to wander off in separate directions - especially true of the bank histories I "do" for US nationals. I need someone to organize me better I suppose.
BTW, your Leda plaque is a fantastic bit of Art Deco. While my primary interest is baroque, just gotta love that period.