Description
[Centennial Exposition 1876] Great International Exhibition Fairmont Park Philadelphia 4th of July 1876. Exhibition Open From May 10 to November 10 Fairmont Park Philadelphia. The 100th Anniversary of American Independence. A collection of six gilded wood souvenir medals manufactured by the Ornamental Wood Company, Philadelphia to commemorate the event and to advertise the new technology used in making them. Still housed in the original pentagonal paper box, with Breuker & Kessler’s lithographed Birdseye View of the International Exhibition Fairmont Park, Philadelphia 1876 on the inside of the lid, this boxed set of commemorative medals features medals for: George Washington, Memorial Hall, Independence Hall, the Main Building, Gen. Joseph R. Hawley (President of the Centennial Commission) and Alfred T. Goshorn (the Director General of the 1876 Centennial Exposition). Made by pressing the design into black walnut discs, which had been softened by soaking them in water, this boxed set was actually made in Machinery Hall at the Exhibition, where the complete boxed set was then sold as a souvenir. The box measures 19 cm high and 25 cm wide; and, the two large medals are 7.5 cm in diameter, and the four smaller medals are 6 cm in diameter. The box is worn, the top is detached from the box, but the internal blue divider holding the medals in their original array is still present. The box has the manufacturer’s pebble grain finish. Someone added an auction lot annotation to the inside of the lid in wax crayon, above the map of the exposition grounds.
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