Description: 55 mm. diameter bronze award medal with a beautifully preserved silvery patina. Its 3.5 mm-wide rim is stamped with a cornucopia followed by "BRONZE," beneath the inscription "UNION SYNDICALE DE L'INDUSTRIE DU GAZ EN FRANCE" ("Trade Union for France's Gas Industry") on the medal's obverse. Above the inscription, the lithe figure of a crouching faun holds his left hand towards a flaming campfire, and spreads his right hand towards a blazing oil lamp hanging from a neighboring branch--as if to indicate that the workers of the COMPAGNIE DE GAZ oversee both heating and lighting. This award medal dates to a period before electricity was one of the services offered by the national power company: a subsequent variant of the medal has the inscription "Electricite de France et Gaz de France" (with no reference to a trade union) and the "caged" power station depicted on the reverse is shortened and crossed by power-lines strung from a row of towers. Our older variant (1930s?) seems to be more finely modeled in such details as the faun's hands, the hanging oil lamp and its flame, the faun's crown of ivy.
Price: 15 USD
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
End Time: 2025-01-20T17:00:01.000Z
Shipping Cost: N/A USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
All returns accepted: ReturnsNotAccepted
Circulated/Uncirculated: Circulated
Composition: Bronze
Type: Medal
Country/Region of Manufacture: France
