Dick Johnson submitted these notes on the Saint-Gaudens Cornish Masque plaquette discussed in last week's issue. Thanks! -Editor
The Saint-Gaudens plaquette on the cover of the September issue of The Numismatist, illustrating Erik Goldstein's excellent
article. and the summation in last week's E-Sylum, is indeed a rare piece.
It may have been so rare that when a specimen came up for auction in a Hans M.F. Schulman sale it attracted the attention of Neil
MacNeil (1923-2008), author of the book The Presidents Medal (1977). Neil had been appointed as one of the directors of the
Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire a few years before.
Whether the museum at the site had one of these in their collection I do not know, but Neil bid and won the medal. He almost immediately
donated it to the site. I know since I was the underbidder. The plaquette is illustrated in John Dryfout's 1982 book The Work of
Augustus St-Gaudens.
For numismatists or book collectors Dryfout's book is a catalog raisonné of Saint-Gauden's medallic work. For even more on the
subject of Saint-Gaudens involvement see Michael Moran's 2008 book Striking Change.
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE SAINT-GAUDENS CORNISH MASQUE PLAQUETTE
(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n35a17.html)
Wayne Homren, Editor
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