CARL SONTAG 1882 GOLD THEATRICAL MEDAL, GERMAN THEATER, SAN FRANCISCO.

Stunning hand made large gold and silver medal from The German (Baldwin) Theater in San Francisco, California. Central brass cast copy of an 1852 US $50 gold octagonal coin with presentation engraved on reverse, "Die Deutschen, San Francisco, Ihrem Carl Sontag, San Francisco, Cal, 12th Feb. 1882". The medal was presented to Sontag on his final evening of a 3-month appearance at the Baldwin Theater. The medal measures 3 - 1/4" tall by 2 - 1/2" wide, and has a gross weight of 70.4 grams. With the exception of a few missing flowers at the top, the medal is in excellent original condition. The medal appears to be made in 14k gold, but the karat is untested.

The following is an excerpt from an article that appeared in The San Francisco Examiner, Monday, February 13th, 1882:

Carl Sontag (Karl Sunday) was a son of actress Franziska Martloff; the singer Henriette Sontag and the actress Nina Sontag were his half-sisters from Franziska Sontag's marriage to Franz Sontag. According to the will of his parents, in no case should he become an actor. So he came to a polytechnic school which he soon had to leave. He then did an apprenticeship as a bookbinder, which he also completed. Already at this time he was also working as a writer in order to be able to afford to go to the theater. He took advantage of his mother's absence to introduce himself to the manager of the court theater in Liège, who accepted him as an extra actor on January 1, 1848; he chose Holm as his stage name. So Sontag was able to successfully compete at the royal in 1848 at the age of 20.

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