SANTA CLAUS, OR ELI AND SAMUEL…OR BOTH?

With Saint Nicholas Day in a few days and Christmas less than a month away, I thought it might be a good time to share a Sunday School medal that depicts Santa Claus with an excited child, or maybe not – you decide!

 

Early this year I acquired from a good friend this medal from the St. John's Protestant Episcopal Sunday School in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. It was intended to be presented at Christmas, although this example is unawarded. It is struck in white metal, 38mm in diameter. Although the medal is unsigned and undated, it can be attributed to William H. Key, circa 1875-1877. This is based on several other dated award medals using this same reverse die paired with obverse dies that are signed by or die-linked to dies signed by Key. Indeed, it belongs to a group of several dozen Sunday School award medal dies by Key from that period, many of which are also used in combination with dies of various So-Called Dollars from that U.S. Centennial era.

OK, a nice Santa Claus medal by Key from the mid-1870s, something to add to my very long list of medals to research further at some point. But then, a couple of months later, my wife and I were returning home from a long weekend away and decided to stop in Hartford at the Wadsworth Atheneum, a wonderful museum if you've never been – highly recommended.

And what to my wondering eyes did appear, high up on the wall of the Morgan Great Hall, but this large painting, the source of the image on the Santa Claus medal! Rushing over to the associated museum placard below, I expected to read something about Santa Claus, and maybe even the Key Sunday School medal.

But no, the painting is entitled "Samuel Relating to Eli the Judgments of God Upon Eli's House," by John Singleton Copley, painted in 1780 and acquired by the museum in 1941 through the Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund. It depicts the scene from 1 Samuel 3:18 where the young prophet Samuel reveals his vision from God to Eli, the high priest of Israel, of the severity of God's judgement on Eli's family because of the wickedness of his sons.

Key could have taken the image directly from the painting, or perhaps more likely from one of several engravings of it published in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These include faithful mezzotints by Valentine Green (London, 1782) and James Daniell (London, 1797), and a somewhat wonky engraving by Henry Moses (London, 1829) published for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

So, Santa Claus or Eli with Samuel, or maybe both? Personally, given the Christmas connection mentioned on the medal and the fact that by the 1870s Santa Claus and Christmas celebrations were becoming popular in America, it seems possible that Key intended the image to represent Santa Claus with a child, and found that this animated Copley painting (or an engraving of it) served as a wonderful model.

I'm not sure if we'll ever know, so you decide!

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