Joseph Sobrier Medallion

 Marie-Joseph Sobrier Medallion. 1848. Two-sided medallion in cast or stamped metal. 2 inches.

Cheap metal medallions were among the most common ways of expressing enthusiasm for popular (and often semi-popular) figures, whether in the realms of politics, culture, or the sciences. This one celebrates the insurrectionist Joseph Sobrier, who represented the extreme left of the many competing political factions that struggled for primacy in the wake of the 1848 Revolution. He had begun his career as a police spy embedded in the Parisian underground activist scene, but turned coat after being converted to the socialist-occultist Evadamist movement, as promulgated by the eccentric "Mapah" Simon Ganneau. He played a role in the many revolutionary clubs leading up to the revolution, as well as co-editing the socialist magazine The Paris Commune along with the romanticist socialists George Sand and Eugène Sue. When the revolution came, he fought on the barricades and then in the tumultuous demonstrations and street-fighting between the more moderate and more populist factions in setting up the new government. He served in the new government in several capacities, but renounced politics after Napoléon III's coup d'état, publicly endorsing the latter's rigged plebiscite to avoid persecution or exile. This sarcastically-worded medallion commemorates his arrest in May 1848 for his involvement in stirring up an insurrectionist workers' riot that stormed the Chamber of Deputies; the arrest took place at his home on the Rue de Rivoli where he was found to be stockpiling weapons. The medal informs us with caustic sarcasm that the authorities distributed free wine to the crowds in order to pacify them and prevent opposition to Sobrier's arrest.

The Front reads:

Vive la République Democratique et Sociale / Mai 1848
Sobrier / Républicain Socialiste

Front Translated:

Long Live the Democratic and Social Republic / May 1848
Sobrier / Republican Socialist

The Back reads:

De la Maison 16 Rue / de Rivoli, par les honnetes / et moderes qui mettent le / citoyen Sobrier en arresta/tion, et le vin du propietaire / en circulation, aux cris mil / le fois, repetes des a bas les / communistes, vive la Pro/piete, la Famille et le / vin gratis.

Back Translated:

At the House at 16 Rue / de Rivoli, by the honest / and moderate people who placed / citizen Sobrier under arr/est, and the property-owner's wine / being passed around, to the cries a thousand / times repeated of down with the / communists, long live Pro/perty, Family, and / Free Wine.