Historical and Art Medals

Edinburgh, John Traill Taylor, 1895, Memorial Lectureship, a bronze medal by J.A. Restall, bust right, rev. wreath, named (S.D. Chalmers, M.A., 1907), 76mm. Very fine, rare (£40-60)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, British Medals from the Collection of James Spencer.

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John Traill Taylor (1827-95) became interested in photography in the early 1850s after seeing a daguerrotype portrait in Edinburgh. He soon came into contact with many of the leading protagonists of the art, including William Fox Talbot, with whom he conducted experiments, and Sir David Brewster. A founding member of the Edinburgh Photographic Society in 1856, he promoted the first Photographic Convention of the United Kingdom, held in Derby. In 1860 he gave a lecture to the Royal Scottish Society of Arts which is believed to have been the first occasion at which photographic lantern slides had been publicly shown. He was experimenting with colour photography as early as 1861