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Society of the Cincinnati
Description
- gold, parchment, ink and paper
Order of the Cincinnati: (1 5/8 x 1 5/16 in.; 42 x 35 mm). ca. 1850. Finely chased gold in the form of an eagle, head left, its wings spread and downswept, its head within a circular laurel wreath highlighted with green enamel leaves, the white enameled tail feathers flanked by green enamel leaves, the eye enameled the color of carnelian. Inset into the eagle's breast is an oval medallion; the motto within a white enamel border that reads Societas Cincinnatorum Instituta AD 1783 (The Society of the Cincinnati Founded AD 1783), within the border, the senators present Cincinnatus with the sword, his wife and cottage behind him against a lapis enamel sky. The obverse the same as above, but with a depiction of Cincinnatus at his plow with a heraldic angel above and a village in the distance against a sky of lapis enamel. The gold hanger of a ribbed design. Suspended from a pale blue silk grosgrain ribbon edged with white. Several minor losses to enamel leaves on both sides, the lapis ground on the side with the senators chipped.
Together with: Engraved document on parchment (13 1/4 x 19 1/2 in.; 335 x 495 mm, sight), accomplished in a secretarial hand and signed ("G: Washington") as president of the Society of the Cincinnati and countersigned by Henry Knox ("HKnox") as secretary, engraved vignettes by Auguste L. Belle after Jean-Jacques André LeVeau depicting America in knight's armor trampling upon the British standard and the American eagle casting the British lion and Britannia out to sea with thunderbolts, flanked by depictions of both sides of the medal of the Order of the Cincinnati within roundels, Mount Vernon, Virginia, 31 October 1785, being the certificate of membership admitting Captain Lieutenant Jonathan Pugh to the Society; soiled and faded, affecting the number "five" in the date and Washington's signature, small hole along top margin. Matted, glazed, and framed.
And with: Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati ... to Which are Annexed ... the By-Laws of the Pennsylvania Society. Philadelphia: By direction of the Pennsylvania State Society, 1841. Small Octavo. Some dampstaining. Red straight-grain morocco; rather worn. — Proceedings of the General Society of the Cincinnati. With the ... facsimiles of the Signatures of the Origihnal Members of the State Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: C. Sherman, 1847. Folio. Foxed throughout. Half red morocco, with ownership label of Charles J. Pugh on front cover; worn and soiled. — Insitution of the Society of the Cincinnati. Organization of the State Society of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: C. Sherman, Son, & Co., 1863. 2 copies, 8vo. Browned throughout. Plum straight-grain morocco; very worn, upper board of one copy detached. Ownership inscriptions of Charles J. Pugh. — Ceremonies Attending the Unveiling of the Washington Monument ... Presented to the City of Philadelphia by the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott, 1897. Publisher's blue cloth lettered gilt; worn, sprung from casing. Pinned to the front free endpaper is the green and white ribbon of the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania.
Literature
Condition
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Catalogue Note
The Order of the Cincinnati was conceived by Henry Knox who wished to establish a fraternal organization for all officers who had served in the War for Independence and "any of their eldest male posterity." The Order was founded in early May 1783 at the headquarters of General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben at Verplanck House in Fishkill, New York. The three guiding principles of the organization were: First, "An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liberties of human nature, for which they have fought and bled. ... " Second, "An unalterable determination to promote and cherish between the respective States, that union and national honor so essentially necessary to their happiness, and the future dignity of the American empire." Third, "To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the officers. This spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly, extend to the most substantial acts of beneficence, according to the ability of the Society, towards those officers and their families, who unfortunately may be under the necessity of receiving it."
In addition to the certificate of membership, Knox provided that "The Society shall have an Order, by which its members shall be known and distinguished, which shall be a medal of gold, of a proper size to receive the emblems, and suspended by a deep blue riband two inches wide, edged with white, descriptive of the union of France and America, viz: The principal figure, Cincinnatus: Three Senators presenting him with a sword and other military ensigns—on a field in the background, his wife standing at the door of their cottage ... On the reverse, Sun rising—a city with open gates, and vessels entering the port—Fame crowning Cincinnatus with a wreath." The Order was designed by Pierre L'Enfant and retained much of Knox's vision but on a scale appropriate for the size of the medal. The beautifully engraved roundels on the certificate by Auguste L. Belle, on the other hand, faithfully follow Knox's allegorical program. The medal in the present lot diverges from the original program insofar as Fame has been altered to represent a heraldic angel, and the founding date of the Society is given on both sides of the medal instead of incorporating the Society's motto on one side: Omnia Relinquit Servare Republicam (He left everthing to serve the republic). Curiously the eagle also lacks talons with which to grasp the laurel leaves near his tail feathers. While not recorded in Myers, the present medal shares some similarities with the Andrews medals (The Insignia of The Society of the Cincinnati, pp. 52-53).
The concept of using Cincinnatus as an emblem of the Order was particularly resonant with Americans since the life of this mid-fifth century Roman nobleman and farmer closely paralleled that of many who had served, with George Washington in the vanguard. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was called upon to repel two hostile tribes that threatened Rome. He issued his orders, which were efficiently carried out, and vanquished the enemy. Although elected a dictator for six months and voted a triumph by the Senate, Cincinnatus stepped down just after fifteen days and returned to private life on his farm. Similarly, at the conclusion of hostilities, Washington returned to his plantation at Mount Vernon. Washington remained president of the Cincinnati until his death in 1799. As both president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and as first president of the United States, 1789–1797, Washington continued to link the interests of the Society with those of the nation.
A posthumous award. Jonathan Pugh began his military career as a Sergeant with the 4th Pennsylvania Battalion 16 June 1776. He steadily rose in rank as recorded in the Historical Register of the Officers of the Continental Army, being first promoted to Ensign in the 5th Pennsylvania (1 January 1777), 2nd Lieutenant (20 April 177). As a result of a serious wound and fracture of his left arm that he sustained during the battle of Brandywine, 11 September 1777, he was transferred to the Invalid Regiment. He was made Regimental Adjutant (1 June 1779) and promoted to Captain Lieutenant (November 1779) and served to the end of the war. In Virtutis Praemium, The Men Who Founded the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania (Rockport, ME, 1998), author John Kilbourne states that Pugh was moved to West Point at the end of 1783 to be cared for by the army and may have remained there until his death in 1785. Pugh's circumstances at the time of his death were so impecunious that the State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania granted forty-five dollar to "Mrs. Pugh, widow of the late Lieut. Pugh, a member of the Society" (Minutes of the Standing Committee, 2 September 1785). Pugh 's certificate was signed by Washington on 31 October 1785. This is the day on which a representative of the Pennsylvania Society visited Mount Vernon to have Washington sign a large group of blank diplomas, which afterwards would have been inscribed and distributed to the individual members.
Pugh was also survived by three children: Robert, Mary, and Henry (neither son succeed his membership in the Society). Henry's son, Charles J. Pugh (1814-1882), was the first to represent his grandfather in the Pennsylvania Society, having joined in 1845. And, as evidenced by three of the books in the lot with his ownership inscriptions and supralibros, two of which date to 1847, it is most likely that Charles commissioned the medal at approximately the time of his induction into the Society or shortly thereafter.
The Pugh Eagle is not recorded by Minor Myers in his Insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati but shares stylistic similarities with the Eagles made by Jeremiah Andrews in the late 1780s (see pp. 50-53). There several unusual and unique aspects to the present Eagle. The motto giving the date the Society was established appears on both sides rather than the Society's motto Omnia Relinquit Servare Republicam ("He left everything to serve the republic"). The other oddity is that the Pugh Eagle lacks talons altogether whereas most Eagles have talons on both sides or at least on the side with the medallion of the senators. The hanger is also quite unusual and unlike any found in Myers. It resembles the hanger seen on portrait miniatures from the 1820s and 1830s, like one in the Metropolitan Museum's American collection: http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/20022945?rpp=20&pg=1&ft=portrait+of+a+lady+1830+2008.97&pos=1
This is a hitherto unrecorded and unique example of the Order of the Cincinnati.
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