ce more to M. Gatteaux, the son of M. Nicolas (p. xxx)
Marie Gatteaux, who had shown me, in 1868, in his house in the Rue de
Lille, Paris, the wax model of the obverse of the medal of General
Gates, and the designs for those of General Wayne and Major Stewart,
but, the house having been burnt during the reign of the Commune in
1871, he could furnish no information, and I was as far as ever from
discovering the original of this piece.

In 1876 I showed to M. Augustin Dumont, the celebrated sculptor,[16]
and the godson of Augustin Dupre, the plate engraved from the plaster
casts, and from him I learned that M. Narcisse Dupre, the son of
Augustin, was still living in the south of France, at Montpellier. M.
Dumont had given to M. Ponscarme, his pupil, now professor in the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the _maquettes_, or lead proofs, of many of
Dupre's works. A few days later, M. Ponscarme showed me a _maquette_
of the obverse of the Diplomatic medal, and at last M. Narcisse Dupre
sent me a photograph of the reverse. I thus obtained proof of the
correctness of the engraved plate.

[Footnote 16: Among his most noted works is the
bronze statue of the Emperor Napoleon I., placed by
Napoleon III. on the column in the Place Vendome,
Paris, which was overthrown by the Communists. The
statue has since been replaced on the reconstructed
column. M. Dumont, who is a professor in the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts, is a member of the Institute,
Commander of the Legion of Honor, etc.]

While in Washington, in February, 1872, I was fortunate enough to
find, in the office of Rear-Admiral Joseph Smith, then chief of the
Bureau of Yards and Docks, in the Navy Department, where they were
used as paperweights, the original dies of the medal voted to
Commodore Edward Preble for his naval operations against Tripoli. I
immediately brought this to the notice of the chief clerks of (p. xxxi)
the Navy and of the Treasury Departments, and also to that of Captain
(now Rear-Admiral) George H. Preble, a connection of the commodore's,
and these dies are now where they belong, in the Mint in Philadelphia.
Shortly afterward I was also instrumental in having restored to the
mint the dies of the Vanderbilt medal, which were lying in the cellar
of one of the New York city banks.

I have found it impossible to obt