| Why the fascination for Napoleon Bonaparte? For
myself it is a combination of interest in the man and the era. The
French Revolution through the years of the First Empire must surely
rank as one of the most turbulent periods in history. Upheaval characterized
all aspects of life, occurring in philosophy, music, politics, art,
science, military life; you name it. Standing in the middle of this
upheaval, sometimes directing it, sometimes fighting it but always
involved was the little Corsican. |
| I began collecting about 20 years ago. I intended
to collect swords but as the father of (then) small children it was
pretty obvious that that interest would have to wait. Like
many boys I had collected pennies and nickels and when I saw my first
Napoleonic era coin (the 1807 Brunswick-Luneburg
2/3 taler) I was hooked. The medals came later. Actually, what
I call medals are technically known as medallions today. At the time
however the concept of a medal that was worn was relatively
new. The 'medals' you see in the paintings of the time are really
orders and decorations, generally reserved for the aristocracy and
therefore fairly rare. |
| I've since branched out to collecting coins, medals,
tokens, jetons and paper money. There really isn't any difference
between a token and a jeton in my opinion, except that a token may
have had implied monetary value and jetons seldom did. Very little
of what you'll see here is extremely rare or expensive; I do occasionally
treat myself but I collect on a relatively modest budget. |
| If you appreciate art you should treat yourself
to an extended visit. This was an era when even the most mundane coin
or medal was created with style. Of course there were many "slap-dash"
efforts, reminding us of our own poor currency here in the USA. But
many pieces were truly Art and the French and British medals
particularly are typically the apex of that creative impulse. It's
difficult to remind yourself at times that all this detail is packed
into something only 40 mm across. That's a little over an inch and
a half for we Americans— ;) |
| So, I'm an enthusiast. You should be too. It's
something like discovering the simple truth about religion, or realizing
that you can do things for the sheer joy of doing them. Without that
joy what's the point? In the end I'm doing something I enjoy. |
| This web site, which is an extension of what I
do for a living, seemed like a natural. I would love to eventually
participate in a grand, world embracing virtual museum, where collectors
of all sorts can share their treasures with others. As a beginning
of this I'm happy that Fortiter,
Black
Watch and LordBest
have chosen to join me here at NapoleonicMedals.org in sharing their
treasures and knowledge online. Is it limiting to concentrate on a
26 year span of history? You judge. |
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| You can contact me by e-mail:
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A Note to Parents:
The fashions of high society of the French Revolutionary and First
Empire periods covered by the medals on this site, particularly the
French, would be considered risque by modern American standards.
Because of this you should be aware that some of the medals depict
the human form in its natural state.
Personally I don't believe that anything you will see here could remotely
be considered obscene, but, people's tastes differ. If your child
has found this site and you are concerned I encourage you to investigate
for yourself. For those without the time I've added the ICRA rating
with the above criteria in mind. |
As you probably have already figured out, nothing
is for sale here. This is my personal collection put online first
of all for the fun of it and secondly to share with you.
There are three other sites with similar philosophies at NapoleonicMedals;
Fortiter's
and Blackwatch's
magnificent collections are well worth the look. LordBest's
new collection is another, with the welcome addition of youth! |
I design these pages for 800 x 600 pixels and as many
colors as possible. I also personally keep fairly up-to-date on the
browsers so if I'm inadvertently messing up you folks on older versions...
sorry. But I would suggest updating, heck they're free.
You will probably enjoy this site more on the latest version of Microsoft
IE than anything else. I design for that look as my site stats tell
me 90% of my visitors use it. |
Finally,
If you see this symbol you can click it to pass the page to the AltaVista
translation website. There you will get an approximate translation,
usually from French, German or Italian to English.
Another item of interest is that your cursor will turn to a hand over
any image that has a hi-res version available. Just click on it. Download
times can be high though! |
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