Lot 288: [ FRENCH MEDALS ]

GUILLAUME DUPRÉ (c. 1579-1640) Francesco IV Gonzaga (1586-1612), large bronze-gilt medal, 1612, FRAN D G DVX MANT-V MONT FER III AN I ÆT XXVI, bust right in elaborately decorated cuirass, large ruff and wearing the Order of the Precious Blood of our Saviour; signed and dated below truncation, G DVPRE F 1612, 162-163mm (Mazerolle 668; Jones 36; Pollard/Rossi, 'Le Medaglie dei Gonzaga', in I Gonzaga, 1995, p. 428, V.56 (167mm); Smolderen 19), an old collector's number 489 inked on the reverse (which bears an incuse impression of the obverse), an extremely fine contemporary cast

Provenance: The Estate of John R. Gaines, 8 December 2005, lot 39. In common with the example in the British Museum (164mm) but unlike other known examples, the Duke's side whiskers, moustache and the beginnings of a beard have been added to the portrait. Copies of the medal were made in the later seventeenth century signed by J.B. Keller (as Pollard 642/Kress 561, dated 1654, 162mm), the Keller brothers having taken over Dupré's foundry at the Arsenal.