MARK TWAIN, CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] Flanagan, John. MARK TWAIN, CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH... New York: Medallic Art Co. [1935] Bronze paperweight issued for the Mark Twain centenary with portrait of Twain sitting in chair smoking a pipe in relief, with smaller images of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn with an aphorism between them: "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest." The Medallic Art Company hallmark appears on the lower rim. The American sculptor John Flanagan (1865-1952) designed this piece, and it bears his initials. Flanagan studied under Augustus Saint Gaudens, and was one of the leading American medalists in America. This paperweight measures 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 and weighs about a half-pound, and is preserved with a perfect patina. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN MEDALLIC ART 148 (an exhibit catalogue based on the John E. Marqusee Collection in the Herbert John Museum, Cornell University). It was used as the cover design on the 1935 New York dinner celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain's birth, and distributed at that dinner which was attended by Twain's granddaughter Nina Gabrilowitsch, his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, his lawyer Charles T. Lark, and a host of other notables who had known Twain: Helen Keller, Dan Beard, Dorothy Quick, Jervis Langdon, et al. William Gillette performed his famous impersonation of Twain at this dinner also. Accompanied by a original dinner menu listing the program and the guests, fine, with original silk tie.