BOOK REVIEW: ARTUR IMMANUEL LOEWENTAL

A biography and catalog of the works of this sculptor has just been published in England and it is a great addition to the literature of the medal. Loewental's career was quite enigmatic. During WWI he worked in Berlin doing a series of medals for the German Government. He moved to England in 1934 to escape the rise of the Third Reich in Germany, became naturalized and in a quirk of fate worked for a UK Company active in producing war material for the allies in WWII.

This catalog mostly records the life and works of Loewental after his arrival in England. His work was usually singular in nature and he produced very few medals that were cast or struck in editions that reached two figures, One major exception was his Churchill Victory medal. The medal was first issued in 1945 in an edition of 1,000 2½-inch bronze examples and again in 1965 as a memorial to Churchill on his death. That issue was 2-inches in diameter with two gold, and single silver and bronze iterations. Total of 2,857 examples. It was this medal that made this reviewer aware of Loewental and introduced him to this consummate medallic sculptor. Here is the obverse and reverse of the 2-inch bronze from 1965

John T Turner
SLHA 2014
119pp Black & White
ISBN 978 0 903582 50 6
Paperback A4
£15.95 (£18.80 by post UK; £26.60 by post overseas)

Artur Immanuel Loewental (1879-1964) was a sculptor of rare talent who created medals of eminent people in Austria, Germany and Britain. Well known for his series of World War I German commemorative medals, his other subjects included Beethoven, Einstein and Kreisler.

Moving to Britain in 1934 – he was an Austrian Jew – his modeling skills with various materials continued to be in demand. The medals he sculpted of Kipling and Churchill achieved great acclaim.

For the last twenty years of his life he lived in or near Lincoln and large collections of his work are in either public or private hands in Lincolnshire today.

This study tells the story of a remarkable man and, for the first time, provides a detailed illustrated catalogue of the medals he sculpted.

For more information, or to order, see:
www.slha.org.uk/publications/slha_books/#

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web