Award medal|Honorary award

Economic exhibitions were organised relatively frequently in the 19th century. It largely stemmed from the development of industry and agriculture and the desire to showcase achievements in individual industry sectors. Szczecin organised the first general craft and industrial exhibition in 1865. More than 1400 exhibitors included companies from Germany, England, France, Russia and the Netherlands. Commemorative and prize medals, which are part of a series of medals from economic exhibitions characteristic of 19th-century European medal-making, were minted on the occasion of that international event. The presented medal was ordered by the Pomeranian Economic Society established in 1810, the initiator and co-organiser of the Szczecin exhibition. Stylistically, the medal remains on the borderline of two eras, Baroque and Neoclassicism. The realistic composition of the obverse was contrasted with the symbolic reverse. The centre of the front side is occupied by a convex multi-line inscription surrounded by a wreath of plants on which crops, animals and farming tools are placed. The depiction is standard, often found on medals from exhibitions commissioned from the Berlin medal manufacture of Gottfried Bernhard Loos (1773-1843). A climbed griffin dominates the other side on a fallen trunk. As a symbol of the extinct Pomeranian Griffin dynasty, the gryphon was still present in the Pomeranians’ consciousness. The highly decorative image of the griffin refers to the motif found on coins minted after the death of the last Pomeranian Duke, Bogislaw XIV (1580-1637).

Genowefa Horoszko