BOOK REVIEW: NINI MEDALLIONS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

MARGOLIS BOOK ON NINI MEDALLIONS OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN REVIEWED IN ACADEMIC JOURNAL

Carla J. Mulford, one of the nation’s pre-eminent scholars of Benjamin Franklin, recently published a review of Richard Margolis’s book Benjamin Franklin in Terra Cotta in the important journal Early American Literature (Vol. 52, No. 3, 2017, pp. 729-748). Margolis’s book painstakingly traces the history and production of the medallions produced by Jean-Baptiste Nini depicting the popular American statesman, printer, scientist and diplomat. Mulford’s review is very positive, and at times is downright effusive. This is especially notable coming from such a serious, scholarly journal.

In discussing three recent publications on Franklin, Mulford writes, “Of the three, the Margolis volume is the most original: it is a thoroughly readable and original scholarly study, featuring Margolis’s immense research in archival and material evidence that has never before been collected and presented in a single volume.” She continues, writing that “Margolis’s book will likely stand for the next several hundred years as the definitive study of the masterworks of the Nini pottery at Chateau-sur-Loire. The volume is just an amazing achievement. It leaves me, an owner of three of Nini’s medallions, spellbound with admiration for the range and complexity of Margolis’s original research.”

A preview of the review essay can be found at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/675673 .

Benjamin Franklin in Terra Cotta is published by Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers and can be ordered at: https://www.numislit.com/pages/books/3473 .

For more information, see:
NEW BOOK: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN TERRA COTTA (http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n10a03.html)

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