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My objection to striking medals from the Bronze you sent me rather increase. It would be doing no service to the cause of Liberty in general, at least so it appears to me, & might hurt us very much individually. Nay the personage is himself at this time more absolute than any Despot in Europe, how then can he be celebrated, in such circumstances as the Patron of Liberty? — Besides if France should declare herself openly an ally &c &c I am from that moment an enemy to both, & the case being very probable, I would not bring myself into so whimsical a situation as you may easily conceive, by throwing these circumstances together a little in your mind, I might add, that as the two Powers may be said to act really as Allies against us, though for political reasons without the form of a public declaration, the event of this conceal’d warfare may be more fatal to us than an open rupture, as I may, as a subject of the British Empire, declare myself an enemy to all its enemies & their Allies though I may curse most bitterly those who have brought us into the dilemma of calling those our enemies, who were, & might have continued to be, our best friends. 4 The letter clearly shows that a “bronze” of Washington existed almost a year before the notice about the Voltaire medal appeared in the London Chronicle. Despite his reservations , Wedgwood did go forward with his jasperware portrait medallion, which he later acknowledged was copied from the bronze Voltaire medal, the work executed by William Hackwood. 5 It follows, therefore, that the bronze sent by Bentley and mentioned in the letter was in fact the so-called Voltaire medal. It is unknown who actually engraved the dies or ordered the medals, but its English or possibly even Scottish origin would seem to be confirmed by its similarity to three other medals, B. Franklin of Philadelphia (Betts 547), Madame Chavelier De Beaumont d’Èon (Eimer 770), and the Death of David Hume (Eimer 768). While the Franklin piece appears to be dated 1777, it was actually attributed to Wedgwood and Bentley as early as 1775 in a book by Thomas Percival entitled A Father’s Instructions to His Children... 6 In describing the motto on the reverse, Percival leaves no room for doubt that he is describing Betts 547. The Franklin and Voltaire medals have several letter punches in common. The d’Èon medal bears the same cryptic date as the Franklin and was probably struck at the same time. There is also a known example of a Voltaire medal struck over a d’Èon medal, and the portrait on the Death of David Hume medal is nearly identical to the Washington portrait on the so-called Voltaire medal. Hume died on August 25, 1776. Washington was appointed commander-in-chief on June 15, 1775. If the medal was actually struck in early 1777, before Wedgwood wrote the letter quoted above, it is reasonable to conclude that the Washington portrait was copied from the Hume portrait. All of these similarities indicate that the four medals, at the very least, originated in the same shop. The d’Èon and Hume medals are extremely rare, the Franklin slightly less so, with the Voltaire the most common of the group. Franklin left England in April 1775, two months before Washington’s appointment, making it unlikely that he had a hand in issuing any of these medals. Thomas Bentley is the stronger candidate for that distinction. He was an extremely literate man who spoke several languages and who, in his youth, traveled and studied in France. Perhaps he was familiar with Voltaire’s work and saw the appropriateness of this quotation as it applied to Washington. Bentley was based in London, and in the highly publicized lead up to the meeting between Voltaire and Franklin saw an opportunity to bring the medal forward without recrimination. This he did simply by placing a notice in the London Chronicle , that conveniently laid credit for its issue on Voltaire’s doorstep. Given these circumstances, the medal might be more appropriately named The Warrior and Sage Medal. In fact, this is how it was referred to in many early auction catalogs.

4 • Medallic Washington