The obverse displays a typically sensitive portrait by Erik Lindberg of Veit Brecher Wittrock (1839-1914), a noted Swedish botanist who held posts as a professor at the University of Uppsala and as Professor (i.e. Director) of the Bergian Garden from 1879-1914, a botanical garden near the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Lindberg portrayed Wittrock wearing an overcoat with a wide fur collar, rather than in a suit or in academic robes as was typical for a scholar; perhaps he tried to suggest that Wittrock’s work took him out into sometimes cold weather.

 

The reverse inscription reads, “He cultivated the plants and renewed the Bergian Garden.” The beautiful woman in clinging drapery watering a rose bush on the reverse elegantly symbolizes Wittrock’s tenure overseeing the garden. The inner Latin inscription indicates Wittrock’s membership in the prestigious Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

 

Erik Lindberg was the son of another well-known Art Nouveau medalist, Adolf Lindberg—collectors may be interested in having works by both father and son. Erik first learned from his father and at the School of Fine Arts in Stockholm, and then went to study in Paris from 1899-1901 where he absorbed the sensibility of the leading French medalists Chaplain, Roty, and Vernon. Lindberg’s highest profile designs were made for the Nobel medals in Physics and Chemistry, Physiology and Medicine, and Literature, in 1901-1902.  Scarce.

 

This medal will appeal to collectors interested in botany, universities and higher education, and allegories.

 

Extremely fine, superb condition. Nice silvery gray appearance. See pictures.

 

Artist: Erik Lindberg (1873-1966)

Title: Veit Brecher Wittrock 1839-1914 (1933)

Material: silver

Size: 31 mm

Weight: 14 gr

Inscriptions:

Obverse: VEIT BRECHER WITTROCK PROFESSOR BERGIANUS/ NAT./ MDCCCXXXIX/ OB./ MCMXIV; signed EL monogram

Reverse: PLANTAS COLUIT HORTUM BERGIANUM RENOVAVIT/ SOCIO MERITISSIMO REG ACAD SCIENTIARUM SVEC/ MCMXXXIII; signed EL monogram

Edge: SILVER 1933

Mint: Swedish Royal Mint

Reference: On Lindberg’s career, see Leonard Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, vol. 3, p. 439-441

 

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In the coming weeks I will be listing many Art Nouveau and Art Deco medals and plaquettes, from France, Belgium and Austria, which I have collected over the past twenty years. They are by the leading medalists of the period, and many are rare.