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Royal Scottish Academy Guthrie Silver Medal (Cased)

Die-maker: Wyon, Benjamin · 1802-1858Case-makers: unknownPrimary artist: Paton, Joseph Noel, Sir, RSA · 1821-1901Engraver: Kirkwood and Son, Alexander · b. 1826

Royal Scottish Academy Guthrie Silver Medal (Cased)

On 28 August 1850 at a General Meeting of the Royal Scottish Academy, it was first proposed that there be struck a Presidential Medal. This was to…

On 28 August 1850 at a General Meeting of the Royal Scottish Academy, it was first proposed that there be struck a Presidential Medal. This was to take the form of a medal suspended from a chain to be worn by the President. On 17 January 1853 the Academy sent two drawings (presumably showing the obverse and reverse faces) to designs by Sir Joseph Noel Paton to the London based Medallist and Dye-Sinker, Benjamin Wyon (1802-58).

The President’s Medal was received in Edinburgh in time to be tabled at the Council Meeting on 12 March 1855 and Noel Paton thereafter was asked to design the chain and also the pendant by which to suspend the medal (RSA Council Minutes 15 and 27 March 1855). The RSA Annual Report for 1854 (Notice V) however suggests the medal had been received earlier; “The Council have now the pleasure of placing on the table of the Academy, the first impressions in bronze of the President’s Medal…..The Council have thought proper to await the decision of the Academicians, before directing that the copy to be worn by the president be struck in gold….It has been suggested in the Council, that copies of the medal should be struck in bronze or silver for each of the Academicians, their names and date of election being respectively engraved on the reverse….The Academy will also probably agree, that copies should be prepared and presented to those of the Honorary Members whose services they may wish so to recognize; and they will now have the power of marking their sense of the merit of Students, by awarding, with due care and discretion, bronze copies of the medal as leading prizes for merit.”

The hallmarking of the Academician’s silver medals and its adoption for other Awards as here commenced only in the late 20th Century.

In addition to making the original steel dies for the obverse and reverse of this medal, Wyon also struck the first 40 silver and 100 bronze medals in 1857

since Wyon's death in 1858 the dies for this medal have been deposited with Alexander Kirkwood & Son, Edinburgh who from time to time have struck new copies as earlier stocks have been used

since the introduction of the medal in 1857 all the engraving of the recipient's details has been conducted by Alexander Kirkwood & Son

The cases for the medals were originally made and supplied by W & J Milne, Stationers, 33 Hanover Street, Edinburgh, who agreed to make the boxes as per Noel Paton’s proposals; viz maroon morocco 4 ¾ inches (for bronze medals) and ditto rose morocco (for silver medals) all lined with the richest blue silk velvet at 8/- per case, to be blocked in gold (to Noel Paton’s design) at extra cost and the recipient’s name to be added at 6d per case.(letter W & J Milne to D O Hill, 29 May 1857) The initial batch of 60 (bronze) and 30 (silver) cases were delivered to the RSA on 22 December 1857.

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