Steven Senne/Associated Press
The Cincinnati medal.
Posted on 12/12/2007 4:27:38 AM PST by Pharmboy
Steven Senne/Associated Press
The Cincinnati medal.
A gold medal that was created for George Washington and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Manhattan on Tuesday for a record $5.3 million, and will remain in France after residing there for 183 years.
The enameled patriotic badge was bought by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun at the Château La Grange, Lafayette’s historic home 60 miles east of Paris.
snip...
The medal will be available to the public by appointment at Chateau La Grange “as soon as Sotheby’s gets it there,” he said, adding that “the Fondation would be happy to make the medal available on temporary loan to Mount Vernon, so the American public can see it as well.”
James C. Rees, executive director of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia — where President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met on Nov. 7 — said, “We did not bid for it, since it was way above our price range.”
He added: “But I am pretty thrilled and honored to display the medal for a week or a year or 10 years, whatever they would agree to.”
snip...
The medal was consigned to Sotheby’s by Lafayette’s great-great granddaughter, the Baronne Meunier du Houssoy. The medal was created for George Washington in 1783 in Paris by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the Continental Army commander who ultimately designed the street plan for Washington, D.C.
Inherited by Martha Washington after her husband’s death in 1799, the medal was passed on to her adopted daughter, then given to Lafayette in 1824 during his triumphal 13-month, 6,000-mile tour of America.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ye Olde RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington pinge lift (FreepMail me if you want to be placed on or off this lift)
That's a lot of Washingtons.
Yeah, but it’s only 35 Euros.../sarc
Lafayette is very understood by most Americans.
Our nation owes this man’s memory more than we can imaging.
I’m surprised the New York Times even remembers the Founders and their era at all! They so hate their handiwork, after all!
Anyone so beloved by The General is definitely OK in my book...
Good point—but they tend to cover anything at Sotheby’s with an impressive hammer price.
Not at all. Do any of us know what Mt. Vernon is worth today?
Probably never will. Some “local government” will franchise the “entrance fees” to a “management consortium” in “Upper Slobvenia”.
And we will be able to continue deluding ourselves.
I am a real estate appraiser with 20+ years experience. No clue!
BTTT
BTTT
ROTFL!
I could ask my mom as a devotee of the Mt. Vernon Ladies’ Assoc. And she has a real-estate background. Perhaps on her next black-tie “event”, she can ask 1 of her new pals there what the appraisal is!
The Mount Vernon estate is owned and maintained in trust for the people of the United States by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, a private, non-profit organization founded in 1853 by Ann Pamela Cunningham. The MVLA was founded after the plantation had fallen into disrepair. Its members are very serious about their charge to maintain the estate, although it does appear to become more commercial every year, but correspondingly they build new and more interesting/educational facilities in an ongoing program.
He was also given a lock of Washington hair in a tiny silver box. When traveling at night on the Mississippi in a river boat, the boat struck a submerged log and everyone had to been transferred to shore. He’d forgotten the lock of hair and sent his assistant back on board to retrive it, which he did.
I did not know that /Johnny Carson voice. Thanks for the info.
The Washington Family CrestWhat's incredible is how closely our US flag resembles it.
Red and white stripes and star shapes.
Thanks Pharmboy.
I don’t believe this is correct. Martha Washington had no adopted daughter in a legal sense. She had a daughter and son. The daughter died in childhood from what is believed to be an epileptic seizure. The son served in the army and died at Yorktown. He had a wife and children. The children were raised at Mt. Vernon by the Washingtons. I do not believe that were adopted, however.
Anyone know for sure?
Nelly and George Washington Park Custis were informally adopted buy Martha and The General after Martha’s son died as you described.
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