Help Identifying An Old Galvano, Not Sure What It Is!

Whatever it is, it is beautiful!! Good luck.
Whats on the reverse?

It looks like it could possibly be a galvano/medal in celebration of the exploration and or the trade in africa. The globe, which is centered on Africa is surrounded with four women. The bottem woman looks to be African and the other three to be European/American. The woman on the very top has a compass in her and she seems to be surrounded by many of the things you would think of in "civilized" Europe.
Just trying to add to what you possible already may know and maybe help you with your research.
Could this possibly be an electrotype?

Galvano - An epoxy coated plaster relief model of a coin created in order to produce master hubs, which in turn produce coin dies.

The more I look at this, I feel it is surely much older than originally thought. I think the settling and progress in the continent of Africa is the theme also..... I think the figures are 3 females and the southern most figure is a male. Any others care to contribute?

Nice piece! The look/execution appears late 19th C. up to WWI, when art was largely a revival of earlier styles.
The figures perched on clouds, the rays above the Europe figure, and the overall style looks Italian.
But I'm unsure why Europe is put front and center, when the map doesn't look very accurate.
Too bad the designer's name is missing--that might help narrow down a particular medal.

I just noticed this post (better late than never) and I recognize this image EXACTLY. The was used to produce a large (2 7/8-inch wide, 1/4-inch thick) medal for the 1853 New York Crystal Palace.

What diameter is yours? A galvano would be expected to be much larger than the finished medal. Something in the 10-14 inch range would be likely. If yours is in the 3 inch range, then you don't have a galvano, but rather an exact-size shell that was produced for some other reason.

Pretty neat in any case!

What else does the dealer have? :-)

Johnathanb,
I appreciate your last piece to my puzzle, I checked the vault and apparently was thinking about another piece when I said the Galvano in question, was 8+ inchs in diameter, I measured the copper galvano and it is exactly 2 7/8" in dia and approx 1/4 inch thick.
I just have the front and would dis-agree with your statement about the piece I have "should" be larger, I have the piece and the back being hollow and apparently was filled with plaster-like material I believe this is the exact size of the original medal of which you show in your photos.

I know some of the galvano process and there is no reason this is or could not be the down to the original sized galvano which was used to prepare the final medal.

I thank you for the information you have given and again thank you for your input.To think the galvano is from 1853, or just before being that date is on the medal and I know it took time to prepare the medal, which means it could be an earlier then that date galvano.........

I would ask, is that your medal, is it a real medal or pictures of the same, I have, thanks to you, researched the crystal palace of New York, 1853, It seems the palace was a building for the nations of the world to show there minerals and precious stones and elements, while the palace was an extraordinary glass, steel pavilion it was opened in the year 1853 and lasted 6 years before a fire broke out, where the building was used for the storage of lumber to finish the remodeling and in less than 21 minutes, was leveled to the ground. I would appreciate any other information on this medal, thanking you in advance, Mike......

Johnathan, My friend.dealer has been into coins for the last 50+ years, being 73+ years young.
I find the time to listen to him speak about the old days, the people he has met and the collections he has seen, all over the globe, I am fortunate to have him in my life and the education that he has in his words alone are very informative, to say the least.

I would say he is also a very 'old school" numismatist, he does not come into change easily and his 'kind' is almost all gone, being he speaks of John Ford, and plenty of the more known collectors and their ways of doing things.

He was into foreign for a very long time which afforded him a certain type person coming to him to assist in the catalog portion of the hobby, IF I could know half of what he has forgotten, I would be doing very well indeed.

I am lucky he has people coming everyday to his shop with some of everything you can imagine and being I collect plenty, he puts certain things aside for me to have first crack at them and this IS not an everyday event in the world today.

I have plenty of my collection due to him, and ranging from one type to most of anything you might have yourself, meaning I collect more than the average person, have been since 1963 and still going and loving it.
As far as what he has, I see plenty of things that you nor I would see in most places, he has plenty of foreign, which I am not all that thrilled about, other than the occassional peice or two, he is a main source of my Morgan/Peace dollar selection, I buy everyone he shows me, most in EF-AU and the GSA'S are also close to my heart, which he has plenty of original government packaged CC'S and other coinage.

I attend a show he is in every other weekend, 26 shows a year and know almost all the vendors from knowing him, I do NOT think he wants to move things any faster than he does, he has plenty of repeat customers like my self which keep him looking out for many things, he has much more than the coins and stamps, magazines, hummels, bottles, and most every other collectable you could imagine, actually picture walking back in time say to the 60's, that would be his shop.........Be Well, Mike......