Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals

FRANCE, Henri Bergson, 1928, an Art Déco bronze medal by P. Turin [struck 1931], bust right, rev. allegory of Time with scroll, symbolic waves behind, Greek legend in three lines above and below, 68mm (CGMP p.380; Classens 13; cf. BDW 47, 927). Very fine, rare £80-£100

Henri Bergson (1859-1941), philosopher, the son of a Jewish musician, taught at Clermont-Ferrand and, from 1900, at the Collège de France; during World War I he helped to bring the US into the conflict and afterwards presided over the creation of what became UNESCO. Crippling arthritis forced Bergson into virtual seclusion and this medal was designed by Turin retrospective to him being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1927 – a prize Bergson was unable to accept in person