the artistic medal, won many admirers to the art, and
in 1897 Drought ahout an exhibition of the works of Anton
Scharff, Pawlic, Schwartz, Radnitzky, Tautenlieim and
others at the rooms of the Grolier Club of New York. Of
our many Numismatic Libraries that of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, under the guidance of Mr Clifford. has
added largely to this Department.
After the appointment of Mr. Buck as the curator ot
work in the Metropolitan Muséum better accommodations
were supplied for artistic exhibitions of medals. They are
now shown under glass, in flat small cases which take up
the sides of two galleries.
Our former President Theodore Roosevelt has also
shown himself to be an admirer of the glyptic art. His
efforts to introduce a change in our coinage has done
more towards popularizing the art of the medallist than
has any previous movement. Our younger sculptors
especially, have been attracted by medallic a rt; any
many are at work in. low relief sculpture. Inspired by
the Société des Amis de la Médaille Française and Die
Gesellschaft fur die Beförderung der Kleinplastik of
Vienna and by the Société Hollandaise-Belge des Amis
de la Médaille d’Art, we have begun to organize on
somewhat similar lines a society called the Circle of
Friends of the Medallion, already numbering about
5oo members.
Owing to the munificence of Mr. Archer M. Huntington
the Numismatic Society now occupies a building of
its own in New-York and its walls are decorated with
the best works of glyptic art, affording thereby a rich
field of study to the student. Under the same intelligent
leadership an International Exposition of Medallic Art
was organized and opened during the month of March
in this year, where the works of i 5o artists were shown
under the best possible conditions. The exhibit comprised
about 24,000 pieces and represented the works oi
all nations.
Through the kind invitation of M. le Chevalier
Alphonse de Witte some of our younger medallists and
sculptors are now showing their work in the Salon
international de la Médaille at Brussels recently opened,
where one can see the attempt to encourage individual
effort for expression in sculpture in low relief and on
the metal disc.
We are and ever shall be greatly indebted to our
European masters, who with the utmost good will give
us counsel in their schools, and instruction in their
studios, and who have lent us their masterly works for
our inspiration and guidance.
To our younger artists in the medallic art we reach
out our hands in an appeal to join us in the quest of the
noble art of the medal.
New-York.
V ic t o r B r e n n e r .