North Beach Art Gallery
Phone: (954) 667-0660
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
The Complete Set of 10 Erté Gold Medallions
The complete set of 10 Gold Medallions is part of the Erté Design Collection, a body of decorative works that draws on the French tradition of objets d'art. Each medallion is conceived as a double-sided composition, allowing Erté to unite figurative imagery, symbolism, typography, and ornamental design within a concentrated form.
Published and distributed by Stephen Byer and Associates, Inc., the complete set includes Above and Below, Bonds of Love, Celebration, Charming Ways, Dimensions, Enchanted Melodies, The Heart, The Kiss, Seahorse, and Style 1921.
Artistic and Cultural Significance
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The Gold Medallions extend Erté’s visual language into an intimate, circular format rooted in the decorative arts. Their double-sided construction allows each work to present two related images, creating a dialogue between figure and symbol, image and meaning, front and reverse.
Across the complete set, Erté revisits recurring themes from his career, including love, music, movement, mythology, nature, and the stylized human form. The concentrated scale highlights the precision of his line and his ability to communicate narrative through ornament and symbolism.
Within the Erté Legacy Collection, the Gold Medallions complement the freestanding bronze sculptures and demonstrate another dimension of his late creative evolution.
Documentation and Preservation
Brooke Trace personally examined and photographed every Gold Medallion on both sides, creating a complete visual record of the entire set. Brooke Trace also scanned, organized, and cataloged the original publishing gallery receipts and certificates of authenticity as part of the Erté Legacy Collection archive.
This documentation preserves the relationship between each medallion and its supporting records while providing a foundation for provenance research, scholarship, exhibition planning, publication, and digital education.