Description
FRANCE Saint Malo Aux Marins De Saint Malo 68mm bronze medal 140 grams
Obverse: figurehead facing right, AUX MARINS DE SAINT-MALO / DAN LAILLER DCI / R. B. BARON SCULP. (Trans: TO THE SAILORS OF SAINT-MALO)
Reverse: view of Saint Malo, R. B. BARON
Edge: 1970 Cornucopia privy mark (Paris Mint) BRONZE
A most curious design by Dan Lailler (1919 -2001), a well respected artist and author of Saint Malo. Since 1952, the room on the first floor of the keep at the Château de Saint-Malo has been adorned with the monumental figurehead in the effigy of a great sailor of the 17- 18th centuries, but nobody is certain as to who is. Locally, the representation is believed to be René Duguay-Trouin, privateer (1673-1736), but their are various schools of thought and the names of other privateers such as Jean Bart, or Jacques Cassard are brought forth as other possible candidates. At the time Saint-Malo was notorious as the home port of the corsairs, the French privateers.
Of importance to Canadians is that it was also the birthplace of Jacques Cartier. Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island).
Roger Bertrand Baron (1907 - 1994) was a French medallist and sculptor. A pupil of Marcel Paupion and Robert Wlérick (1882-1944). From an early age is particular interest was animal sculpture. He chaired the sculpture section of the Society of French Artists, and was Secretary General of the Gramont Academy, member of the office of the Taylor Foundation and founding president of the National Salon of Animal Artists from 1976 to 1991.
