102343 | UNITED STATES. Catskill Aqueduct Completion bronze "So-Called Dollar"

102343  |  UNITED STATES. Catskill Aqueduct Completion bronze Medal. Issued 1917 (38mm, 26.05 g, 12h). By D. C. French & A. Lukeman, and struck by the Medallic Art Co. in New York.

 

Female head right, wearing laurel wreath and head scarf / Nude male standing left, pouring forth water from a large urn; in four lines across field, TO COMMEMORATE THE COMPLETION / OF THE CATSKILL AQUEDUCT / AN ACHIEVEMENT OF CIVIC SPIRIT / SCIENTIFIC GENIUS AND FAITHFUL LABOR / 1905 NEW YORK 1917. Edge: MEDALLIC ART CO NYC.

 

HK 667; Marqusee 177; Baxter 245. Choice Extremely Fine. Light olive-brown surfaces.

 

Started in 1905, the Catskill Aqueduct—intended to transport water from the Catskill Mountains some 163 miles south to New York City—was completed 12 years later—an event that was to be commemorated on a medal authorized by the subcommittee of the Mayor's Catskill Aqueduct Celebration Committee. Daniel Chester French, who served on the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Robert de Forest (himself the president of the aforementioned committee), was selected to design the commemorative medal. The subsequent work of art, issued by the American Numismatic Society (ANS), measured 76mm in diameter and was cast in both bronze and silver, with respective mintages of 57 and 12 in these formats. The Medallic Art Company (MACO), entirely independent of the ANS, struck an unknown number of medals with this design in bronze and at a diameter of 38mm. Sixteen years later, then president of MACO Clyde Curlee Trees chose French’s obverse design—depicting a female representative of either Greater New York or Columbia—as the symbol and logo of MACO, with it becoming synonymous with the company going forward. Interestingly enough, the ANS is now the owner of the archival remains and intellectual property rights of MACO, the former having purchased the latter out of bankruptcy in 2018.

 

Upload: 16 January 2023.

 

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