101857 | UNITED STATES. General Motors 25th Anniversary silvered bronze Medal.

101857  |  UNITED STATES. General Motors 25th Anniversary silvered bronze Medal. Issued 1933 in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair of Progress/General Motors Exhibition (76mm, 193.00 g, 12h). By R. P. Chambellan (after N. Bel Geddes) for the Medallic Art Company.

 

TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF / MOTOR TRANSPORTATION, streamlined automobile (after that designed by Norman Bel Geddes) speeding right, with lengthy, stylized wing raised above / COMMEMORATING THE TWENTY FIFTH / ANNIVERSARY OF GENERAL MOTORS, stylized piston before laurel wreath. Edge: MEDALLIC ART CO. N.Y.

 

MACo 1933-024; Marqusee 53. Mint State. Silvering nearly fully intact, with a few lightly scattered speckles and marks. Includes a MACO box. A very rare and popular medal with automotive and Art Deco importance. Almost never encountered so alluring, as the silver plating stood up poorly to the test of time on most of the remaining specimens.

 

Channeling the iconic, streamlined, "car of the future" design of the famous modernist industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes, this MACO offering celebrates the 25th anniversary of General Motors and was meant to show off the company's forward-thinking concepts at the Chicago World's Fair of Progress in 1933. The company's brochure at the exhibition described the medal as follows: "The face of the medal shows a speeding automotive body behind which a wing rises perpendicularly. Since the medal is to be used as an award in future years and the car of the future is merely a guess, this car is an abstract streamline form without doors or windows. The conventionalized wing symbolizes General Motors interest in air transportation. The wing being static; the car, by contrast, seems to move more swiftly. / The reverse of the medal shows a combustion chamber...since it is the heart of the motor. It too has been conventionalized." Given its crossover appeal to collectors of Art Deco, modernist, or automotive pieces, or those of General Motors specifically, this type has become incredibly popular. Additionally, due to the poor nature of the silvering, nearly all are encountered with a good deal of the plating worn off or severely discolored. In contrast, this example remains nearly original, with much of the silvering fully intact and without annoying discoloration.

 

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