(NAVY) Papers of early naval surgeon Peter St Medard includi

Sale 2473 - Lot 156

Price Realized: $ 531

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200

(NAVY.) Papers of early naval surgeon Peter St. Medard, including his portrait. 66 items: wax portrait mounted on velvet and 65 manuscripts; condition generally strong. Vp, 1795-1822 and undated

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Additional Details

Pierre St. Medard (1755-1822), also known as Peter, was a French-trained physician who gave his loyalty to the American Revolution, serving as a surgeon's mate aboard two ships, settling in Boston after the war, and then in 1798 rejoining the navy as a surgeon, serving aboard the USS Constitution and other vessels. This lot features a relief portrait, 3 x 1 1/2 inches, rising half and inch off the velvet backing board, 4 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches, with its original curved-glass frame. The portrait bears a label on verso which apparently dates to the mid-20th century, identifying St. Medard as the sitter and John Christian Rauschner as the artist. Rauschner was a prolific creator of painted wax portraits in this style who was active in America in the early 19th century; he appears in the 1807 Boston directory.
With the portrait is a small group of Medard's personal papers, 65 items, dated 1794-1822. 6 items relate to his naval career--notes on individual patients, 1805-21, and a manuscript list of 35 naval vessels with commanders and number of guns compiled in November 1799. A pair of certificates appoint St. Medard as Boston's physician for the Overseers of the Poor, 1807 and undated. Also included are a transcript of his will and his estate inventory, 1822. The remainder are personal receipts and accounts. Provenance: Peter St. Medard; by descent to Elizabeth Blaisdell Andrews (1911-2004); and purchased from her estate.