Lot 253: [ GERMAN MEDALS ]

HANS SCHENK (active c. 1524-1570) Eleonora (1498-1558), wife of Francis I of France, silver uniface medal, 1537, FR I FRANCO REG... ELEONORA CON 1537 followed by Schenck's krug (pitcher) symbol, her bust left, rev., marked with '4', 4.53g, 23.2mm (Habich -), a very fine contemporary cast, apparently unrecorded and unique

Provenance: Peus 286, 1975, lot 38; Cyril Humphris collection, Sotheby's, 3-4 October 1996, lot 234; Morton & Eden, 29 November 2007, lot 667. The krug symbol confirms this as the work of Hans Schenk and it is the companion piece to a similar-sized medal of Francis I of the same date (as Habich 2226, apparently unique, in Dresden), itself part of a series of small uniface portrait medals by the artist.