Medal (Presentation medal)

Description

This portrait medal depicts French nobleman, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), who served as a General under George Washington during the American War of Independence. LaFayette's profile was created by a master sculptor and medalist in Paris, although struck with an English language inscription on the reverse: "THE DEFENDER OF AMERICAN AND FRENCH LIBERTY. 1777-1824. BORN IN CHAVANIAC, THE 6 SEPTEMBER, 1757". In American newspapers of the 1820s LaFayette was often identified as a "defender" of the nation and he seems to have selected this title. He was also called the "nation's guest" during his return tour in 1824-25. This bronze medal and identical examples were possibly struck in Paris for LaFayette to bring to the United States. A short piece published in the Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser (September 6, 1830) remarked that a medal bearing the same inscription was "given recently by General LAFAYETTE to a Baltimore Youth." It is unclear whether this example is a keepsake from the tour or an 1830 restrike. At the time, the artist Caunois contributed a series of portrait medals to the "Galerie Metallique des Grand Hommes Francais," (the Great Men of France) but this profile meal of LaFayette was not among them.