QUEBEC Montreal 1891 Provincial Exposition / A. Mongeau Bijoutier Horloger 28mm Bronze Medal 11.4 grams Leroux 1517b, Bowman 3034a
This medal is relatively scarce in white metal and should be considered rare in bronze. Only the second example that we have owned. Illustration is not included.
Obverse: Crystal Palace Building, SOUVENIR DE L'EXPOSITION PROVINCIALE MONTREAL 1891 / PALAIS DE CRISTAL / C. TISON
Reverse: shield within a wreath of maple leaves, arm and hammer symbol above A. MONGEAU BIJOUTIER HORLOGER MONTREAL
Adolphe Mongeau (born c1856 - 12 Nov 1917) is listed as a jeweller in the 1881 census. He started a business with Charles H. Baker in about 1885 as Mongeau & Baker advertising themselves as manufacturing Jewellers and watchmakers, but dissolved the partnership in 1889. In an 1889 series of advertisements that ran in the Montreal Gazette they advertise "Sporting Medals - having had many years experience in the manufacture of medals of all kinds we are prepared to fill all orders for Clubs or Carnival." R. C. Willey in his "Dictionary of Canadian Medallists" mentions A. Mongeau as a, "Montreal jeweller and watchmaker, who issued some medals in the late nineteenth century. The medals were struck by Tison. The include Mongeau's business card (Leroux 1517b) and a medal for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Montreal (Leroux 1517f)". He was to operate at different addresses on St Lawrence Boulevard. At one point in the late 1890s he started selling bicycles as a sideline. He became insolvent in early 1907, and his store contents were auctioned off. He died in Montreal on the 12 of Nov. 1917.
The Agricultural and Industrial Exposition displayed the agricultural and industrial innovations of British North America. The exhibition was an annual event which took place from 1860 to 1896 towards the end of the summer. The 1891 Provincial Exposition took place from September 17th through the 25th.
The Exposition was not without its struggles. The 1880 expo had attracted 100,000 visitors, that of 1884 only attracted 50,000. The smallpox epidemic that struck Montreal in 1885 dealt another blow to the event; not only was the exhibition canceled, but its buildings were transformed into a temporary hospital. An agreement was finally concluded in 1890 to relaunch the exhibition with a private company. The government of Quebec gave a grant of $25,000 and leased the land to it for 18 years, in exchange for a symbolic rent of $1. The exhibition resumed at the end of September 1891, but with mixed success.
The Crystal Palace (Palais De Cristal) was designed by architect John William Hopkins , taking inspiration from the 1851 Crystal Palace in London. Built with a metal frame, it had a barrel vault and two side galleries 7 m wide. Its main facades were of glass and steel, while its sides were of pink brick, the iron and wood elements being painted to match them. The building was inaugurated by the Prince of Wales on August 25, 1860, same day as Victoria Bridge.
Originally the palace was located on Sainte-Catherine Street between Victoria Street and McGill Avenue. In 1878 it was dismantled and rebuilt at Fletcher's Field near Mount Royal . In July 1896, it was destroyed by fire
Charles Tison was a Montreal engraver and die-sinker. They did numismatist pieces for P. N. Breton, A. Desroches, P. O. Tremblay and J. D. Marchand