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WORKS OF SCULPTOR JULIO KILENYIResearch rabbit holes are a delightful journey of discovery and learning. Author Jim Haas recently followed a thread relating to sculptor Julio Kilenyi, kicked off by a newspaper article about medals produced for the Consolidated Gas Company of New York. Here's his summary. -Editor Julio Kilenyi was born in Arad, Hungary, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1885. He studied at the city's Royal Art School, later in Germany, France and South America before coming to America, arriving on December 17, 1915 from Buenos Aires. For reasons unknown, his petition for citizenship reads, "also known as Costao Petrone." He became a citizen on April 1, 1917. His works, of which there are many, include the Harry S. Truman Inaugural Medallion, Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Plaque, 1952; Distinguished Service Medal of U.S. Navy, Charles A. Lindbergh Medal, the 1928 Benjamin Franklin 200th Anniversary of the Saturday Evening Post Medal, Battle of Lexington and Battle of Bunker Hill 150th Anniversary Medals, Medal of the 10th Olympiad and the George Washington Bridge Dedication Medal. Some can be seen in in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Harvard Collection and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His memberships included the National Sculpture Society, the Architectural League of New York and the American Numismatic Society. Kilenyi died in New York City on January 29, 1959. Of note is that his nephew Edward was a renowned music performer and teacher, one of his pupils being George Gershwin, who studied harmony, counterpoint and form with him. Jim included a file of images and newspaper clippings related to Kilenyi and his works. Here's a sampling. -Editor
Consolidated Gas Company 
Medal images courtesy Harry Waterson 
Pershing Bust 
Lindbergh Medals 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers Medal 
1932 Olympics Plaque 
10th Olympiad Medal
All America Cables Medal 
Knowing that Harry Waterson has been researching Kilyeni's work for many years, Jim and I shared his compilation of material, which also included information about Eddy Kilenyi Jr. -Editor 
Harry writes: "Of the two clippings I snipped, The one about Jane Parry is a new clue. I have a picture of the plaque from the Juley & Son picture collection at the Smithsonian and until today, that was the sum of my knowledge, with no info on it other than what is on the plaque. BTW, I looked up the church where the Parry Plaque was installed in 1945. It is now abandoned, full of mold and dust according to Wikipedia. The other clipping I snipped was biographical info about Eddy Kilenyi Jr. during WWII. Eddy Jr was Julio Kilenyi's nephew and Eddy Jr lived with him off and on from 1938 to 1946. At that time, Eddy Kilenyi Jr. was a well regarded concert piano soloist and recording artist. Interestingly, the details of Eddy Jr's life from birth in Philadelphia to moving to Budapest in 1925 are all muddled up by the author of the clipping which will make me check the facts of the WWII bio very closely. There is an unpublished autobiography of Eddy Jr. in the Kilenyi archive at FSU in Tallahassee. And even there, he tiptoes around his war service." Thanks everyone - great topic. Kilenyi did some excellent work. -Editor
THE BOOK BAZARREWayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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