(Marinus Fleur, 1940, Jan Daniel Sickler, bronze, 60 mm, NEPK2442)
The NEPK collection recently acquired the portrait medal of Jan Daniel Sickler (1865-1949), by Marinus Fleur (1878-1946). Fleur was a medallist at Royal Begeer (Koninklijke Begeer), which in the 20th century was the largest professional medal producer of the Netherlands. In artistic circles the work of Begeer’s medallists goes largely unnoticed, which in my view is often not justified. The medal shows that Fleur certainly was a more than capable portraitist, as were his colleagues Pol Dom and Jacob Jan van Goor.
The medal was commissioned as a tribute to Sickler when he had been the lead partner in the Amsterdam trade company Koopman & Co for 50 years. This trade company had been founded in 1795 by Sickler great-grandfather and had the nature of a typical family business. Sickler considered the close involvement of management with the work floor an important part of the company’s success. Ten years earlier he strengthened the bond with the company personnel further by founding the JD Sickler Pension Fund. The aim of the fund was stated as (citation): ‘to bring the personnel, including their widows and orphans, a cared-for future”.
Imagine this now, in the present times of takeovers, mergers, hedge funds and quick succession of managers with large distance to the work force !
For the medal, click: https://www.nepk.nl/en/collectie/?id=2442
For earlier news items, click: https://www.nepk.nl/en/news/
