Augustin Dupre (1748-1833) Bronze "Franklin Natus Boston" Medal (Betts-620), Signed and Dated 1786, Mounted within a Fitted Shagreen Table Box, the Franklin Obverse Set into the Exterior of the Lid and the Wreathed Motto Reverse Set into the Floor of the Interior, Extremely Fine.
This fitted table box, measuring 5 x 3.5 x 1.75 inches closed, is covered in mottled, dyed shagreen and lined in satinwood, opening on a brass hinge to a compartment fitted specifically to house a Dupre Franklin medal. The obverse, a left-facing bust of Franklin encircled by BENJ. FRANKLIN NATUS BOSTON. XVII. JAN. MDCCVI, is set within a metal rim into the shagreen exterior of the lid; the reverse, an oak wreath enclosing the four-line legend ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN SCEPTRUMQUE TYRANNIS and signed in the exergue SCULPSIT ET DICAVIT AUG. DUPRE ANNO MDCCLXXXVI, is set into the satinwood floor of the interior, visible only when the box is opened.
Augustin Dupre (1748-1833) was already among the most celebrated French medalists of his generation when he engraved this piece, having produced the Libertas Americana medal and several of the Comitia Americana medals honoring Revolutionary War figures including Washington, John Paul Jones, and Daniel Morgan; he would later be named Engraver General of the Paris Mint in 1791.

The Franklin medal is generally understood as a personal tribute rather than an official commission, created as Franklin was concluding his years as American minister to France. Its reverse legend, commonly rendered in English as "he snatched the lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants," originated with the French statesman Turgot and had already circulated on a Franklin portrait print as early as 1778.

The wreathed reverse used here replaced Dupre's original 1784 "Winged Genius" design after that die failed, and the medal went on to considerable esteem in France, an example later included in the set of Comitia Americana medals Thomas Jefferson assembled for George Washington and given its own dedicated case in the Musee des Monnaies in Paris alongside medals honoring Washington and John Paul Jones.