Circular bronze medal with oak wreath suspension; the face with the head and shoulders portrait of Marianne, representative of the French Republic, facing left, an oak-crowned helmet with a winged lion on her head, circumscribed ‘REPUBLIQUE’ and ‘FRANÇAISE’ to left and right respectively, signed ‘M. JAMPOLSKY’; the reverse with a circular laurel wreath circumscribed ‘LES CHEVALIERS DU DEVOIR’, an Arabesque below; a small edge bruise to the right; on replaced correct ribbon. Les Chevaliers du Devoir was a life-saving society formed in Paris in the late 19th Century. It seems to have ceased to exist in about 1924. Michail Jampolsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine. He studied under the great Parisian medallists Dupuis, Ponscarme and Rasumny and settled in Paris, producing bronzes, glassware and other artefacts in the Art Nouveau style.
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