Sir John Barnard (ca. 1685–1764) 1744

This is a bronze portrait medal of Sir John Barnard, made by Jacques-Antoine Dassier in the mid-18th century. Dassier was one of a family of Geneva-based die-cutters. The process begins with carving a positive model, from which a negative mold is made. Molten bronze is then cast into this mold. Once cooled, the resulting form is refined through chasing, engraving, and polishing. The final result is a three-dimensional portrait, captured in a dense material valued for its permanence. Bronze medals like this one were essentially proto-photographs, offering detailed likenesses to be collected and shared. However, their production involved considerable handwork, reflecting a pre-industrial approach. While Dassier certainly made multiples of this portrait, each one would have been touched by the hand of a skilled artisan. In our contemporary world of mass production, it’s easy to overlook the inherent value of materials and the labor involved in their transformation, which pieces like this can remind us.