after:

HOUDON, Jean-Antoine

Versailles, Yvelines 1741 - Paris 1828

DUVIVIER, Benjamin

Paris 1730 - Paris 1819

George Washington / Reprise de Boston, 1776

George Washington / Washington before Boston, 1776

1789, restrike

bronze

medal and plaquette

Dimensions (HxWxD): D. 2 ¹¹⁄₁₆; weight: 0,352 lbs

obverse:
around the circumference: GEORGIO WASHINGTON SVPREMO DVCI EXERCITVVM ADSERTORI LIBERTATIS
inscribed at lower: COMITIA AMERICANA
signed at left: DUVIVIER / PARIS F.
reverse:
around the circumference: HOSTIBUS PRIMO FUGATIS
inscribed at lower: BOSTONIUM RECUPERATUM / XVII. MARTII / MDCCLXXVI
signed at right: DUVIVIER

Acc. No.: 2001.87.397

Credit Line: Transfer from the Yale University Library, Numismatic Collection, 2001, Bequest of the Charles Wyllys Betts, B.A. 1867, M.A. 1871, Collection

Photo credit: Yale University Art Gallery / http://artgallery.yale.edu

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain; © Artist : public domain

New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery

artgallery.yale.edu

Provenance

• 2001, Transfer from the Yale University Library, Numismatic Collection
• Bequest of the Charles Wyllys Betts, B.A. 1867, M.A. 1871, Collection

Bibliography

• Museum's website (accessed May 2017)
• 1885 Baker
  William S. Baker, Medallic Portraits of Washington, 2nd, Robert M. Lindsay, Philadelphia, 1885, p. 30, no. 48
• 1894 Betts
  Charles Wyllys Betts, American Colonial History Illustrated by Contemporary Medals, New York, Scott Stamp and Coin Company, 1894, reprint 1964, p. 244, no. 542 or 543

Comment

• Princeton University Library website (accessed April 27, 2018):
  Benjamin Duvivier (1728–1819). Washington before Boston, 1789. Bronze restrike, U. S. Mint, after 1884.
  The retreat of British troops from Boston on March 5, 1776, was one of the first major American victories, and the Continental Congress voted a gold medal to Washington within that month as an expression of gratitude. Like other medals authorized for Revolutionary War heroes, the piece would be struck in France, the center of medallic artistry and technology. For this medal, a portrait was deemed necessary, and a long delay ensued as the sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741–1828) first traveled to America and then returned to Paris with a sculpted bust of Washington to be copied by the medal engraver. The project was initiated by Franklin and completed by Jefferson, who brought the gold medal back to America with him in 1789. Restrikes of the medal have been produced regularly at both the United States Mint and the Paris Mint.

---