Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
June 19, 1809
Primary Source Reference:
Peale Museum Accessions Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 41
Additional Source Text:
"This Medal is made of the Bolts of the Bastile and presented to the Guards, purchaised by the donor in france in the year 1796."
Notes:
Luca Einaudi, Centre for History and Economics, provides the following account of the many objects created from pieces of the Bastille: "A special mention must be given to a construction entrepreneur, Pierre Francois Palloy, who on the evening of 14 July 1789 took the private initiative to bring several hundred workers from his construction sites and started on his own account the demolition of the hated symbol of tyranny. Only a few days later he sought the endorsement of the City Council for the demolition of the Bastille and obtained it, gaining a central role in the creation of the myth and the celebration of the achievement. The 'patriote Palloy', as he started calling himself, made the demolition of the Bastille the largest building site in Paris, with close to a thousand workers a day for two years. In the process Palloy ruined his business but created a wide array of symbols, celebrations and objects as an inspiration in the struggle for liberty through what would be styled today as souvenirs (normally donated and not for sale). "Several stones of the castle were sculpted into small-scale models of the Bastille and were sent to all the departments, at Palloy's expenses. Medals were coined out of the various types of metal recycled from the Bastille. Forty-seven dies were counted by the collector Gille Michaud. The total production was limited because they were sent by Palloy as gifts to authorities and others who had deserved them through their patriotic and civic achievements" / https://www.histecon.magd.cam.ac.uk/coins_July2015.html
An example of a medal, La Commune de Paris aux braves du 14 juillet 1789, is pictured here."
