Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

British Historical Medals, Harrow School, Robert Peel Latin Prize, 1826, a gold award by W. Wyon, bust of Cicero right, rev. legend in wreath, edge named (Ben. C. Brodie mdcccxxxiv), 43mm, 61.98g. Extremely fine; in maroon fitted case of issue (£500-600)

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, Bt (1817-80), chemist and mathematician, lived at Box Hill, Surrey; eldest son of Britain’s leading physiologist and surgeon, Sir Benjamin Brodie (1783-1862); educ. Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford; trained for the bar but abandoned law to study chemistry at Giessen, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1850 for the analysis of beeswax, work for which he gained fellowship of the Royal Society and the Society’s Royal Medal; professor of chemistry at Oxford, 1855, resigning in 1872 because of ill-health. The recipient’s Royal Society gold medal was sold in these rooms, 11 July 2006, lot 2303