France. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE MINES AT LENS. By Oscar Roty and Hippolyte Lef?bvre. Silvered-bronze plaquette 47mm x 69mm. Cased. $175. Sorry, SOLD (May, 2023). ———— Louis Oscar Roty was born at Paris on June 11, 1846. He initially studied painting at the ?cole Nationale Sup?rieure des Beaux-Arts under Lecoq and Boisbaudran. It is reported that he lost the money for a paint box and subsequently enrolled in a life-drawing class and thence into sculpting. This trajectory would eventually lead to his career as the most celebrated medallist of his time. Along the way, he studied in the atelier of the statuary Augustin Dumont and under Ponscarme, Chapu and Chaplain. He won the Premier Grand Prix de Rome for medal engraving in 1875. Roty spent three years in Rome, where he modeled a number of waxes. In 1888 he was elected to the Acad?mie des Beaux-Arts. He took the grand prize at the International Exposition in 1889. Roty was a commander of the L?gion d?Honneur. He was responsible for reintroducing the plaquette, an art form that had been neglected since the Renaissance. His ?Semeuse? (sower) was widely used on French coins and stamps. He died in Paris on March 23, 1911. ———– Hippolyte Lef?bvre, sculptor and medallist was born in Lille. He studied at the Acad?mie des Beaux-Arts in Lille, where he won first prizes in drawing and sculpture. He later entered the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he won numerous prizes. He exhibited at the Salon and won the Grand Prix de Rome in sculpture in 1892. Lef?bvre won gold medals for medals that he exhibited at the 1900 Universal Exposition.