An impressive, massive medal made for Tsar Alexander I, in gratitude for the creation of the Kingdom of Poland.
In a very rare version by Karol Emanuel Baerend.
In August 1815, when the tsar was in Paris, a Polish delegation went to see him. Its task was to express gratitude to Alexander I for the creation of the Kingdom of Poland. This was not obvious given that only a few years earlier he had opposed the creation of a Polish state in any form. The courtesies between the delegation and the tsar were far-reaching. The tsar received a medal in gold, minted especially for the occasion, with the beautiful sentence "UNUS QUI NOBIS RESTITUIT REM"(the only one who restored the State to us). The monarch returned the favor by presenting members of the delegation with high orders.
This medal was made by the Warsaw Mint. It commissioned its two medalists, Gotfryd Majnert and Karol Baerend, to prepare it. And it is this very rare version of Baerend that we offer you in this auction.
In the archives of Polish companies over the years we find only 4 quotations of this medal in silver. All of them signed MAINERT.
Preserved medal mirror and very nice detail, especially for a medal of this weight. A single minor edge bump at 12 o'clock on the reverse side and a cut in front of the portrait of the Czar. Otherwise unqualified.