General Motors GM 25th Anniversary Art Deco Silver Medal 1933 by Norman Bel Geddes :

This medal is always in demand as an art object as well as a highly collectible medal of exotic.


Price : 500 $ eBay



ITEM description :



GENERAL MOTORS SILVER ANNIVERSARY MEDAL, 1933. Marqusee 53. 76mm. Silver-plated Bronze. Designed by Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) and dies engraved/sculpted by René P. Chambellan, Sc. (1893-1955). Struck by the Medallic Art Co. Edge incused at 6 o'clock: MEDALLIC ART CO. NY. About Uncirculated, with minor scattered marks, lightly tarnished and surfaces appearing to have been highly polished. Depending upon the directness of the lighting source, the medal finish can appear uniformly bright silver or reflect light/dark areas as seen in the high-resolution images. A difficult medal to photograph! Please see the last listed image (added 4/25) for the best representation of the medal's overall appearance.

Obverse depicts an eight-wheeled Art Deco Streamlined-style auto (Bel Geddes’ Motor Car No. 9) as it speeds to the right, as if in a wind tunnel; a large upright wing towering over it (Motor Car No.9 featured a vertical stabilizer, or rudder, in its tail, like an airplane.) The smooth field is broken by two recessed rim segments at top right and lower left bearing the raised-letter legend: to the advancement of – motor transportation. Signed below car: NORMAN BEL GEDDES ©1933. Reverse is divided vertically by a stylized automotive engine piston design, symbolic of all combustion chambers/engines, with its fascinating suggestion of vigorous motion, and laurel wreath above. Small incuse dates 1908 – 1933 around the rim diagonally from bottom right to top left; recessed rim segments bearing the two concentric-line legend: commemorating/ the twentyfifth – anniversary of/ general motors.

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art comments on this medal as follows:

“This medallion, commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of General Motors, is an example of the Streamlined style that dominated architecture and design in America from the late 1920s to the end of the 1930s. With its abstracted, teardrop-shaped vehicle form depicted in motion, with the tall wing like element rising from its center, the overall effect is one of speed and movement – characteristic of the Stream-lined style and appropriate to the automobile and airplane age. Norman Bel Geddes was trained as a theatrical set designer but best known for another project for General Motors, the Futurama exhibition at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. This exhibit, through which visitors were propelled on a giant conveyor belt, depicted a utopian vision of America in the near future, a world dependent on the speed and efficiency of the automobile for work and recreation”. – Metropolitan Museum of Art

The medal comes with a very scarce 1934 First Edition hardcover automotive book titled "THE TURNING WHEEL – THE STORY OF GENERAL MOTORS THROUGH TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 1908-1933", by Arthur Pound. First Edition copyrighted and published by Doubleday, Doran & Company, New York, in 1934. The book measures 6.5" X 9" and has a phenomenal 518 paginated pages plus end pages, the hardcover board covers, and the rare Dust Jacket! The definitive early history of General Motors, all accompanied by artistic and historical illustrations. Fascinating reading, and a great reference source! Very light wear to the Dust Jacket with microscopic bumps and rubs to edges and corners; the book and the contents are crisp, clean, completely unmarked and in excellent condition! Please see listing images.

A scarce medal and probably one of the more desired of the Art Deco medals!

Thank you for looking! Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) was born Norman Melancton Geddes in Albion, Mich., in 1893, son of stockbroker Clifton T. and Flora Euelle Geddes, née Yingling. The distinctive name under which he is best known was adopted on his 1916 marriage to Helen Belle Schneider when the newlyweds combined their names as Bel Geddes. Their exotic name was further publicized by the successful stage and movie career of their daughter, Barbara Bel Geddes.

The designer burst onto the show business scene in Los Angeles as a brilliantly innovative set designer for Aline Barnsdall’s Little Theater in 1916 and 1917, and in 1918 at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. His work was featured in such theatrical works as Arabesque, The Five O’clock Girl and Sonja Hennie’s It Happened on Ice, and New York stage sets for the great Max Reinhardt.

Bel Geddes made his mark in industrial design with his own studio after 1927, where he created exciting designs for such diverse products as cocktail shakers and radio cabinets, the dramatic Art Deco House of Tomorrow and his nine-deck amphibious airplane, “Airliner Number 4.” In 1936, he designed “Metropolis City of 1960,” which attracted widespread attention and some controversy.

His General Motors Pavilion of the 1939 and 1940 New York World’s Fair echoed two earlier creations, his revolutionary tear drop shaped automobile of 1928 and his now famous General Motors Anniversary medal. – David T. Alexander, biographical excerpts from an article first published in July 11, 2011, “Expert Advice” section of Coin World.


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