Commemorative, Historical and Art Medals

Great Britain, Thomas F. Bayard, U.S. Ambassador at the Court of St James’s, 1897, a uniface cast bronze-plated lead medal by Effie Stillman, bust right, 104mm (Attwood, Artistic Circles, p.32, 26; BM Acq. 1978-82, p.75, 52). Very fine and very rare £80-100

Provenance: DNW Auction 40, 14 April 1999, lot 860.

Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-98), Democratic senator from Delaware, 1869-85; secretary of state under President Grover Cleveland, 1885-9; US Ambassador at the Court of St James’s, 1893-7. The Bayards, an American family descended from French Huguenot refugees, had been prominent in US public affairs for over 200 years. T.F. Bayard’s great-uncle, John Bubenheim Bayard (1738-1807), was speaker of the Pennsylvania assembly in 1777-8 and at least five members of the family served as senators from Delaware between 1797 and 1929