Albertine-Elisabeth Pater, (Baroness Albertine of Nivenheim), 1742-1805. Silver Medal, Struck Uniface. Unsigned But Probably By Giovanni Battista Nini, 1717-1786. An 18th Or 19th Century Striking, Possibly Of The Period. Rare And seemingly Undocumented.
 
Cf: For an example of this portrait by Giovanni Battista Nini sculpted in 1768. The Metropolitan Museum, Object Number: 52.133.2.
 
The medal bears the portrait of Albertine-Elisabeth Pater, the wealthy daughter of Dutch baron Johann Gisbert von Nyvenheim. After her separation from her husband, a wealthy Dutch banker, she settled in Paris in 1763. Within a short time, she was a secret mistress of King Louis XV, and a close associate of Marie Antoinette. She remarried in 1779 taking the surname Champcentz.
 
She fled France in 1789 and supported French royalists who also left the country when the Revolution began, reportedly served as a covert go-between keeping Royalist emigres in contact with associates who remained in France. Returning to France in 1791 spending time in prison for counterrevolutionary activities, she was eventually released, in 1803 was exiled with her spouse.
 
An old grey collection tone.