 Franklin Mossop Medal, ca. 1766. Copper uniface, 36.7mm. Fuld FR.ME.NL.11, Betts 545. Choice Extremely Fine. Die attributed to William Mossop, Dublin. Charles Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture shows the portrait to be the work of Isaac Gosset, wax modeler of Huguenot descent and creator of popular studies of contemporary celebrities. A similar Gosset Franklin exists as a Wedgewood porcelain oval. Bust l. in heavy English wig, face tilted slightly upward, BENn.. FRANKLIN. L. L. D. Blank back shows faint concentric lathe lines, plain edge bears a single collar segment ('witness') line at 12:00. Betts and other early writers associated this portrait to the granting of Franklin's Doctorate of Laws at St. Andrew's, Edinburgh in 1762, which would have made it the earliest Franklin medallic portrait. Modern researchers are still trying to ascertain the exact dates of the cutting and first use of the die.
Ex Paul Koppenhaver Auction in TAMS Journal, March 1973.
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