(c.1881) Medal JAB-39 Brass Pynchon House MA

Coin Details

Auction Record

$240 MS64 04-03-2024 Stack's Bowers

Description

This circa 1881 brass medal cataloged as JAB-39 commemorates the Pynchon House in Springfield, Massachusetts, a landmark building associated with the founding family of the city. William Pynchon established Springfield in 1636, and the Pynchon family remained prominent in the Connecticut River Valley for generations. John Adams Bolen created this medal as part of his ongoing documentation of local Springfield history, a subject that held personal significance for the long-time resident of that city. The obverse depicts the Pynchon House, rendered with the architectural detail that Bolen brought to his building portraits. The structure represents one of the earliest European-built dwellings in western Massachusetts and served as both a residence and a center of the fur trade that sustained the early settlement. The reverse carries commemorative inscriptions identifying the subject and providing historical context. JAB-39 was produced relatively late in Bolen's career — by 1881 he had been creating medals for nearly two decades and had refined his technique to a high degree. The brass composition gives this piece an attractive golden tone appropriate to its commemorative character. Springfield's local history provided Bolen with a rich vein of subject matter throughout his career, and the Pynchon House medal stands among his most focused treatments of a single historical structure.

Rarity Notes

Produced in typical Bolen quantities of 15-50 pieces per metal. The brass version of JAB-39 is moderately scarce.

Cross References

PCGS #886880; JAB-39 (Brass)