 B. Franklin Americain Medallion, 1777. Terra Cotta uniface, 113.1mm. Fuld FR.ME.L.3, Sellers Plate 10:3, Forrer IV:270. Choice Extremely Fine. Light brown color with a light lacquer, old pencil notes on back. An integral tubular suspender angles through back to center of the edge at 12:00. Multi-step integral rim frames a high relief bust l. in a fur hat, silk cravat. Imaginary Coat of Arms on the truncation shows arm grasping a rod attracting lightning from cloud, NINI/ F 1777, additional 1777 below. All letters in B. FRANKLIN. AMERICAIN. are crisp and clear.
This portrait epitomized the charm of the aged yet lively Franklin as American envoy to France. The truncation emblem is a compliment to Franklin's famous kite-flying experiment proving the electrical nature of lightening. His simple ''old brown coat,'' long iron-gray locks without a powdered wig and fur hat on his balding pate created a rage for ''Franklin fashions'' among upper class Frenchmen. A similar fur hat was worn by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in an engraving by Allan Ramsay done in London, 1766, making it the artistic shorthand for freedom.
In a 1777 letter to Emma Thompson, Franklin described himself just as he appears on this medallion, ''Figure me in your mind as jolly as formerly, and as strong and hearty, only a few years older; being very plainly dress'd, wearing my thin gray strait hair, that peeps out from under my only coiffure, a fine Fur Cap, which comes down to my forehead almost to my spectacles.'' (Charles Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, Yale University Press, 1962, pages 99-100). This medallion is a desirable mahogany brown example and a splendid link to Franklin's role in the birth of the United States.
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