Secessionist Medals

Secessionist Artists 1919-1925 => Erzsébet von Esseö => Topic started by: Rabenauge on December 14, 2019, 03:11:11 AM

Title: Hungarian Soviet Republic
Post by: Rabenauge on December 14, 2019, 03:11:11 AM

Esseö, Elisabeth (Erzsébet) von.  1919 

・SOVIETREPUBLIKA・HUNGARIA・III・VII・1919・ (Soviet Republic - Hungary - March - July 1919).  Cast bronze, verdigris patina, 71.4 mm, 101.52 g.  Vorzüglich (extremely fine).  Very rare.

Obverse: Medusa head with pointed ears, bat wings, open mouth, and writhing tangle of serpents filling the entire field; title legend lower edge. 

Reverse: Hanging-tree with a dozen victims spread across the upper half of the field, the trunk and roots anchored in a fissured stylization of the Hungarian arms; artist's monogram, encircled ligatured ƎE at lower left.

Cf: Huszár, Lajos, and Béla Procopius. 1932. Medaillen- und Plakettenkunst in Ungarn, p. 201: 1945; plate XXIX.
Cf: Attwood, P., and F. Powell.  2009.  Medals of Dishonour, British Museum, p. 77, no. 19, (mistaken reading of III・VII・1919 for 3 July 1919: the Hungarian Soviet Republic lasted from March [III] - July [VII] 1919).


Reverse design loosely based on Jacques Callot's etching from Les Miseres et les Malheurs de la Guerre (aka "The Large Miseries"), 1633, plate 11.