Historical and Art Medals, Numismatic Books

The Royal Society, Queen’s Medal, 1838, in gold, coronetted head of Victoria left, rev. Sir Isaac Newton standing right, drawings illustrating his theories at sides, edge named (Benjamin Collins Brodie, 1850), 73mm, 343.00g (BHM 1885; E 1322; D & W 161/463). Set in glazed lunette, brilliant mint state and very rare; in original maroon case of issue (£5,000-6,000)

Plate II; also illustrated on the front cover. 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. Sold with further biographical detail