Baldwin's of St. James's
Auction 52 18 Nov 2020
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Medals by Subject, Freemasonry: Germany, 75th Anniversary of the Wilhelm of the Rising Sun Lodge, Stuttgart, bronze plaquette, 1910, by R. Stocker, youth holds hammer and oil-lamp, rising sun over Stuttgart beyond, 70 x 47mm, extremely fine; Czechoslovakian exiles in war-time London, the Comenius in Exile Lodge, founded 6 May 1941, cast bronze jewel or medal, by René Wiesner (1904-1974), facing bust of Comenius [Jan Amos Komenský], rev. dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, 72mm, much as made, very fine, scarce (2)
The Comenius-in-Exile Lodge met at the Café Royal from 1942. The jewel's designer, René Wiesner, was a Czech exile who came to London in 1939. He was the son of the painter Adolf Weisner, who was to die in Theresienstadt. An engineer, René Wiesner was a specialist in glass-concrete construction, famously for the Czech Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. He and his partner, Arnošt Ast, co-operated and worked with many of the European modernist and avant-garde artists and architects. After the war he established Novolor Ltd in Bridgend, South Wales. Many of the Lodge's members were prominent in the exiled Czech government: Dr. Edvard Beneš, President-in-exile; Jan Masaryk, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hubert Ripka, State secretary for Foreign Affairs; Jaromír Nečas, member of government-in-exile and Dr. Pavel Korbel, General Secretary of the Czechoslovak State Committee in London.
(80-120 GBP)
The Comenius-in-Exile Lodge met at the Café Royal from 1942. The jewel's designer, René Wiesner, was a Czech exile who came to London in 1939. He was the son of the painter Adolf Weisner, who was to die in Theresienstadt. An engineer, René Wiesner was a specialist in glass-concrete construction, famously for the Czech Pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. He and his partner, Arnošt Ast, co-operated and worked with many of the European modernist and avant-garde artists and architects. After the war he established Novolor Ltd in Bridgend, South Wales. Many of the Lodge's members were prominent in the exiled Czech government: Dr. Edvard Beneš, President-in-exile; Jan Masaryk, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hubert Ripka, State secretary for Foreign Affairs; Jaromír Nečas, member of government-in-exile and Dr. Pavel Korbel, General Secretary of the Czechoslovak State Committee in London.
(80-120 GBP)