Lot 177: Two French Bronze Allegorical Art Medals, 1897 and

Two French Bronze Allegorical Art Medals, 1897 and 1908, the first by Georges Dupre (1869-1909), "Meditation", 1897, the obverse with a pensive female figure overlooking the architecture of Paris and the legend "Meditation", the reverse with a view of the Coliseum through an ivy-covered arch and the legend "La le Lierre Jaloux d'Immortalite Triomphe en Possesedant ce que l'Homme a Quitte", being a quotation from Alphonse de Lamartine's (1790-1869) poem "La Liberte, ou une Nuit a Rome", h. 2-1/2", w. 1-15/16"; the second by Etienne-Victor Exbrayat (1879-1914), "Poesie Lyrique", 1908, the obverse with a heavenward-facing Orpheus and an adoring L'Amour, the reverse with a scene of an ivy-covered flagstone wall and an olive tree from which hang masques of the three faces of life, h. 2-1/2", w. 1-7/8"; each marked on the lower edge "Bronze" and with the French cornucopia mint-mark in use after 1880.