Awards

To highlight the advantages of collecting awards as compared to art, coins, etc. Here you will find portable monuments, true heirlooms for the human community, hitherto seen only in museums. Aesthetically pleasing objects of great importance can express humanity's ultimate quest in modern times to build peace and prosperity, and to understand the world; these objects are ideal for someone looking to lend gravitas to an office or other significant room.

MUSEOLOGY
    Only the great dealers in antiquities, documents, religious relics, or art consistently carry objects of comparable gravitas, and even they often fail to do justice to the human context in which the objects were used.   We at Awards of Outstanding International Importance consider context to be of prime importance, so that when we offer medals, diplomas, etc., we concentrate on the recipient as well as on the issuing institution.   In this respect, we are at the cutting edge, not only in the specific field of awards, but in the general categories of museology (the study of museums) and cultural criticism.   We at Awards of Outstanding International Importance see collecting as comprising aspects of both popular and high culture, and thus see both collectors and dealers as worthy of particular attention.
    We at Awards of Outstanding International Importance see the identity and biography of the recipient being just as germane as the award itself, because receipt of an award of this caliber was likely to be among the central events in the recipient's life.   Award ceremonies are generally major, and sometimes mega-social events.   Awarding institutions usually maintained complete lists of personnel who received each class and "denomination" of each award; books exist devoted to biographical entries about recipients of particular major awards, e.g. Heroes of the Soviet Union.    To us at Awards of Outstanding International Importance, a person's awards substantially sum up the person's life as it related to the context of the culture in which the person lived.
    One other main criterion by which we determine whether an object or group is worthy of our attention, is the extent to which the relationship, between the issuing institution and the recipient, pertains to (retired) U. of Chicago historian William H. McNeill's conception of the process of historical change.    He emphasizes the evolution of the means of interaction between societies as the single greatest factor in bringing about change within societies.    We at Awards of Outstanding International Importance regard awards from one society to persons of another society to be of special interest.

STATESMEN AND HEROINES
    By "Statesmen" we mean all persons who have decisively effected public affairs, rather than only diplomats.   Our stress on heroines involves not only women whose specific deeds directly effected public affairs as much as did statesmen, but also women whose example, if it was not so decisive, nonetheless epitomized the rise of women in modern times.
AUTHENTICITY
    Authentication of most award-objects is easier than of art, and much easier than of autographs, as the institutions presenting awards had a major interest in guaranteeing that forgery of award-objects would be brutally difficult; hence we at Awards of Outstanding International Importance need not hesitate to guarantee the authenticity of our material.
VALUE
    For years we at Awards of Outstanding International Importance have been amazed that such objects would be available at any price, much less at prices affordable to persons who lack massive wealth; it is our good fortune that the collecting market is so much less efficient than, say, stock markets.   With the gradual emergence of a truly world culture, this inefficiency is bound to diminish over time (such an emergence can only increase the number of people who appreciate the difference between a world-class object and an object the significance of which is limited to some locality).    Our travels include trips to the facilities where award-objects have been produced, such as to Stockholm (home of Nobel Prizes).    We have exhibited at such major institutions as Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.
We were on Swedish Television, during (the intermission of) the national telecast of the Nobel Prize ceremonies, on 10 December 2006.

                        For the Einstein Nobel Prize
          exhibit recently at Chicago's Field Museum, click here.

Jeffrey Schramek, M.A., research and historical context
Kathy Foulke and K. Goldberg, international social liaison
------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Sadlek, consultant on physical aspects and authentication (with almost 50 years of experience, incl. as a published authority)

We have had some of our Awards of Outstanding International Importance on display, at every convention of the Orders and Medals Society of America , since 1983.
Our expertise has been consulted by responsible persons in this Society in the most significant circumstances (e.g. from the standpoint of protecting the integrity of the Society's reputation for displaying only authentic specimens). These conventions are attended by major collectors and dealers from around the world. The public is permitted into these conventions on a Saturday; in 2010, the convention will be held in Portland, Oregon, on 14 August. We cordially invite interested parties to meet with us to discuss any aspects of the collecting of awards.
From 2008 on, when sell at this Convention, our prices are more flexible for those who pay with bank checks, or legal currency of any major economy (e.g. euros, yen, Candos) . We have also been consulted by governments of the Western World about such issues as (market) evaluations of award objects, and designs for (to be newly issued) award objects (e.g. medals).

Contact Information

(World-Class Awards to Statesmen and Heroines)

"Without peer in this realm or any other!"

is our motto at Awards of Outstanding International Importance, and we would like to welcome you to the exciting world of collecting world-class awards and objects that have belonged to statesmen and heroines. Awards and objects of this caliber and quality can be an education for anyone potentially interested in collecting in this exciting field. Whether it be a women's suffrage hunger strike medal or a Nobel Prize , the spectrum of awards is vast enough to intrest anyone with even a cursory interest in historical events or the people who participated in them. At the core of the value of awards are the deep (and broadly held) human sentiments surrounding their creation and issuance; to some persons or societies, such objects can become literally priceless.

Telephone
773-539-5751
FAX
773-304-0131
Postal address
P.O. Box 300791, Chicago, IL 60630, USA
Electronic mail
General Information: buynobel@sbcglobal.net
Sales: nobeljeff@prodigy.net
Customer Support: nobeljeff@nobeljeff.com
Webmaster: support@ihostsites.net

was a Sothebys.com Associate. All Sothebys.com Associates were professional dealers selected and approved by Sotheby's. Only
Sothebys.com Associates were permitted to offer property on Sothebys.com. (In May 2003, Bradstreets.com replaced Sothebys.com.)

Awards of Outstanding International Importance to Statesmen and Heroines

J.A. Schramek & Associates

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Sir James CHADWICK's Nobel Prize Medal, w/ Diploma
What should this historic set be worth, given that recently a work of contemporary art, "Triptych, 1976" sold for $86.3 million?

Click on the photo above to get to page to play an Interview with J. Schramek, telecast on Swedish Television, during (the intermission of) the national telecast of the Nobel Prize ceremonies, on 10 December 2006. The subject was Sir James Chadwick's Nobel Prize group.

The Viktor Balck Olympic Games - Founding Archive:
Swedish medals, incl. the only gold and bronze versions in existence , presented to (and honoring) the 80th birthday of the key co- founder of the Olympic Games , Viktor BALCK , who was a pillar upon whom International Olympic Committee boss Pierre de Coubertin "increasingly relied.... Ahead of his time, Balck was conscious of likely trends," whereas otherwise, de Coubertin's IOC was "absurdly unbusiness-like." Later the 1912 Stockholm Games, (run by Balck, to rave reviews) saved the Olympic Movement from likely collapse : the '04 and '08 Games had been so controversial that the interruption caused by the Great War (cancelling the 1916 Games) would likely have been permanent, had the Stockholm Games not been such a smashing success. Incl. is the official 1912 Stockholm Games Official Report, a 9 1/2 pound book presented to Balck; its inset silken endpapers are embossed with Balck's VGB monogram. Also incl. is his Collar to the Order of the Tower and Sword of the Portuguese Kingdom.

International Olympic Committee - Session in Athens, 10.04.1896
Pierre de Coubertin is second from left; Balck is in uniform on right.

Letters Patent (with Victoria's Great Seal) presented to the Right Honorable Prime Minister Willam GLADSTONE , appointing him U.K Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1873.
Considered one of Britain's greatest P.M.s, (he led four Ministries, over the period stretching from 1868 to 1894) his in tense rivalry with the Conservative Party Leader Benjamin Disraeli culminated in his famous Midlothian Campaign election victory, in 1880, which is often cited as the first modern political campaign.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to Minister of Finance, or Secretary of the Treasury, in other nations) is considered one of the four Great Offices of State, and in recent times has come to be the most powerful office in British politics after the Prime Minister.

Diplomatic credentials (incl. Great Seal of Queen Victoria shown here, in .. box .. of .. issue) presented by the Queen to Arthur BALFOUR , empowering him to negotiate on behalf of the U.K. govt. in Aug. 1898, when he managed to conclude an agreement with Germany regarding the eventual fate of the declining Portuguese Empire. These talks were part of an effort

to explore the feasibility of an Anglo-German alliance, which was eventually wrecked by German blunders; Germany's failure to seize this golden opportunity is wistfully regarded by German scholars as Das Grosse Nein, the Great No which, had it been a Yes, might have turned German history away from WWI, Hitler, and the Holocaust. Balfour was later Prime Minister from 1902 to 1906, and in 1917 as Foreign Minister issued the famous Balfour Declaration granting the Jews a national home in Palestine. Incl. are full length bigraphies of Balfour, and books about pre-WWI Anglo-German relations.

11 November 2007:
Medal Owned by Washington, Lafayette Sells for $5.31 Million http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/newspid=newsarchive&sid=aksfW5CfuLrM

NYC Federation of Women's Clubs' Medal of Honor, 1st of eight ever awarded, to Lady Leila PAGET, whose heroism
in a WWI Serbia devastated by typhus (she was once given up
for dead) earned her the lasting love of Serbs.
Gold and enamel badge, by C.G. Braxmar Co. of New York, is of the highest workmanship.

Stalin Prize 1st Class gold medal and impressive diploma, given in 1946 to Agrippina VAGANOVA , who is regarded as one of the greatest ballet theoreticians and teachers ever. Her pre-WWII book on ballet technique is continually reprinted and is available at most large US bookstores. (Group also includes full length biographies of her, in English and Russian.) The regimen of the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg is emulated in Vaganova Schools around the world. Her international reputation was such that she survived the Stalin purges although (or because?) she never joined the Communist Party .

Objects Granting High State Authority

Victoria's
Great
Seal

The Sir James Chadwick Nobel Prize Archive

Neither Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, nor George Soros are known to own any Nobel Prize medals or diplomas, (let alone one of the importance of Chadwick's) despite the massive wealth of each man.

Record price for any work of art is $140 million , paid in 2006 for Jason Pollack's "No. 5, 1948" .
Record price for a 1930's work of art is $48.4 million, paid in 1997 for Picasso's "Le Rêve".