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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 2313358, member: 5833&quot;]It gets difficult now to make order of what happened in the step from the inscription T.P. Danbiere Paris on the bottom of a little box:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259237[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>to being T.P. Danbiere (more legibly written) Paris 1889, on this faux marble plaque and others like it:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259242[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259244[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>Once again, a highly attractive image.&nbsp; I have not been able to find the original artwork behind this dancing lady and her young companion.&nbsp; Because she carries a kithara and also a plectrum, I think of her as the Muse of Dance, Terpsichore.&nbsp; Her putto friend keeps time by jangling a sistrum.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the telltale evidence for the connection between marble-look plaque, the small lidded boxes and the cameos.&nbsp; What links this plaque to others is not what is on the front; it is something on the back.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259286[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The date 1889 appears again here because this is a replica of an <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/191109" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/191109" rel="nofollow">award medal Louis Bottée engraved for the Exposition Universelle</a> of that year.&nbsp; Optimistic private sellers and negligent auction houses are easily led by the combination of inscription and medal into thinking the plaque was exhibited at, or made for, the Exposition of 1889.&nbsp; In this case the medal and inscription support each other.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the Bottée Exposition Universelle medal is not the only one to be seen on this particular plaque.&nbsp; As an alternative to this,</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259290[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>you might see this</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259291[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p><p>which is the reverse of a medal celebrating the visit of Peter the Great to the Paris Mint in 1717, an event completely unrelated to the Exposition of 1889.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259293[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The Latin motto VIRES ACQUIRIT EUNDO is not specific to Peter the Great.&nbsp; In this case perhaps it suggests that the more he travels around, the greater he becomes.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have seen the Mint Visit medal on <a href="https://www.catawiki.com/l/24092009-after-francois-duquesnoy-20th-century-plaque?utm_campaign=Curio+auction-en&amp;utm_content=auction_lot_share&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=Pinterest" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.catawiki.com/l/24092009-after-francois-duquesnoy-20th-century-plaque?utm_campaign=Curio+auction-en&amp;utm_content=auction_lot_share&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=Pinterest" rel="nofollow">the back of a faux marble plaque taken from an ivory relief</a> by the Flemish master <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duquesnoy" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Duquesnoy" rel="nofollow">François Duquesnoy</a>.&nbsp; The copy of a different Duquesnoy has this medal, Perfugium Regibus:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259299[/ATTACH]</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259300[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>a <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_G3-FrM-629" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_G3-FrM-629" rel="nofollow">medal made by Jean Mauger</a> to recognize France for giving shelter to James II of Britain and his family in 1689.&nbsp; A pretty medal; another entirely unrelated event.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are two other insets seen on these pieces.&nbsp; One is the one taken up in the Numismatic Fraud thread, which has an ornate letter F, the words &#039;St. Petersburg&#039; and the year 1882.&nbsp; (Also a cross shape on the left?)&nbsp; Speculation has got going that this may relate to Fabergé, something for which we were able to find no evidence.&nbsp; I have seen it accepted without question as meaning the item was made in Russia and is antique.&nbsp; These must also be rejected.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH=full]259301[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The final medallion is one photo too many, so, see next.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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