The Silich Collection of Historical and Art Medals (Part III)

U.S.A./FRANCE, L’Amérique se joint aux alliés [America Joins the Allies], or Columbia Joins the Fight, 1917, a bronze medal by R. Grégoire, bust of President Woodrow Wilson three-quarters left, statue of Liberty at left and fasces at right, eagle below, rev. robed figure of America, bringing arms, being greeted by figures of Britain and France, the latter of whom indicates Reims Cathedral at upper left, edge impressed bronze and cornucopia, 68mm, 141.17g (Maier 248 [Sale, lot 2185]; van Alfen, Art of Devastation, 76; Frankenhuis 3; CGMP p.195; cf. SJA 102, 288; cf. DNW 64, 1331). Very fine £40-£60

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Silich Collection of Historical and Art Medals.

View
Collection

Bt Münz Zentrum Rheinland January 2004.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was Governor of New Jersey between 1911 and 1913, and President of the United States from 1913 to 1921. From 1914 until early 1917 Wilson's primary foreign policy objectives were to keep his country out of the war in Europe and to broker a peace agreement, despite several incidents involving the destruction of American vessels and ships with American citizens on board in 1915 and 1916. Interventionists, led by Theodore Roosevelt, wanted war with Germany and attacked Wilson's refusal to build up the army in anticipation of it, but it took until the summer of 1916 for Wilson to react and, in the wake of his narrow victory in the 1916 presidential election, war on Germany was declared on 6 April 1917