Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer

Inscriptionback to top

Obverse embossed ‘EDWARD SHARPEY-SCHAFER: PHYSIOLOGIST’;
stamped below shoulder: ‘PILKINGTON JACKSON’.
Reverse embossed in field: ‘SODALI / BENE MERITO / SODALES / BENE VOLENTES / MCMXXII’, a twig of oak with two acorns between the fourth and fifth lines.

This portraitback to top

In 1921, during his long tenure at the University of Edinburgh, Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer’s pupils and fellow researchers set up a fund to commemorate his fifty working years as a physiologist. [1] The presentation was to be a life-size bronze medallion, mounted on an arched stone (presently untraced; see ‘All known portraits, Paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints, 1921–2’); a medal was also to be cast for subscribers. Due to delays with the subscriptions, and the schedule of the sculptor, Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson, the project ran into the following year.

Sharpey-Schafer first learnt of the scheme in July 1921, and wrote to Jackson: ‘Some of my former assistants are proposing to make me a present of a medallion or small plaque (in bronze) with a portrait, and have raised about £70 with this object.’ [2] Work on the medallion and the associated medal proceeded more or less in tandem. In November preparatory sketches and special photographs were taken; [3] and Jackson approached the medallist and modeller William Midgley to make a reduced medal die from the large-scale model. [4] The Latin dedication that ran beneath the medallion, and on the reverse of the medal (‘To a well-deserving colleague from his fellows who wish him well, 1922’), was devised by R.M. Henry, professor of Latin at Queen’s University Belfast, in consultation with T.H. Milroy, coordinator of the presentation. [5] Sharpey-Schafer sent the approved inscriptions to Jackson on 2 December 1921, while Jackson warned Midgley: ‘I am frightfully particular about lettering.’ [6]

The following May Sharpey-Schafer sat to Jackson for ‘a medal’ – the subscribers’ medal, of which 86 were cast. [7] The obverse shows a profile in delicate but unidealised high relief – ‘to try and obtain the old Italian effect’, according to the sculptor. [8] Medal production was organised by Midgley in June. He informed Jackson that Elkington & Co., the Birmingham electroplaters, would take about three weeks to make an electrotype from his plaster. On 16 November Jackson showed Sharpey-Schafer the finished medal; that month too Midgley charged Jackson £9 for two dies (front and back of the medal), £12 8s. for striking 62 medals at 4s. each, and £3 17s. 6d.for 62 medal cases.

A few months later, in February 1923, Midgley invoiced Jackson for a further 24 medals, which were cast to satisfy unexpected international demand. [9] Jackson also designed a medal for the 11th International Physiological Congress, which was held in Edinburgh in 1923 and chaired by Sharpey-Schafer. [10]

In 1928 Sharpey-Schafer presented two copies of the medal to the British Museum. George Francis Hill, keeper of coins and medals, assumed from the matt gold surface that they were bronze gilt. The sculptor himself was a little vague: ‘The medals are forged copper. I do not know exactly how the gold patina is produced. It is a chemical process I believe, not electric plating, but I think they might be described as gilt.’ [11]

The 51 subscribers to the Sharpey-Schafer presentation each received a medal, [12] and ‘additional copies were made for Sir Edward to send to old colleagues … a few medals remained in Sir Edward’s possession at the time of his death’: inherited by his daughter, Geraldine Sharpey-Schafer, NPG 4581 originated from this residue. [13] In September 1967 she delivered the medal to the National Portrait Gallery, expressing her hope that the gift would be acceptable. [14] After inspection by the Trustees, it was eagerly accepted and placed in the Reference Collection, which, in 1967, was still the repository for all Gallery medals.

For additional information on this portrait, see Jacob Simon's article: 'a medal in very bold relief': Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer.

Carol Blackett-Ord

Footnotesback to top

1) This account is based on Howarth n.d.; Jacob Simon’s notes on Charles d’Orville Pilkington Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, box 3, file 86, held in NPG RP 4581; and E.A. Sharpey-Schafer diaries, Sharpey-Schafer Papers, Wellcome L., London, PP/ESS/S.1-3, S.2, S.3 (microfilm).
2) Letter from E.A. Sharpey-Schafer to C.d’O.P. Jackson, 16 July 1921; J. Simon’s notes on C.d’O.P. Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, held in NPG RP 4581.
3) ‘Pilkington Jackson – who is to make my medallion came to my lecture to make sketch [sic] for medallion’; see E.A. Sharpey-Schafer diaries, 29 and 30 Nov. 1921, Sharpey-Schafer Papers, Wellcome L., London, PP/ESS/S.1-3, S.2, S.3 (microfilm).
4) J. Simon’s notes on C.d’O.P. Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, held in NPG RP 4581.
5) Howarth n.d.
6) J. Simon’s notes on C.d’O.P. Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, held in NPG RP 4581.
7) E.A. Sharpey-Schafer diaries, 18 May 1922, Sharpey-Schafer Papers, Wellcome L., London, PP/ESS/S.1-3, S.2, S.3 (microfilm).
8) J. Simon’s notes on C.d’O.P. Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, held in NPG RP 4581.
9) E.A. Sharpey-Schafer diaries, 16 Nov. 1922, Sharpey-Schafer Papers, Wellcome L., London, PP/ESS/S.1-3, S.2, S.3 (microfilm); see also J. Simon’s notes on C.d’O.P. Jackson Papers at NL of Scotland, Edinburgh, held in NPG RP 4581.
10) See ‘Report on International Physiological Congress’, BMJ, 28 July 1923, p.142, showing profile of William Harvey on obverse of medal, and inscriptions in similar lettering to NPG 4581.
11) Letter from C.d’O.P. Jackson to E.A. Sharpey-Schafer, 7 Feb. 1928, Sharpey-Schafer Papers, Wellcome L., London, PP/ESS/P.74/18. Copies of the medal in other public collections include: Royal Soc., London, M/206 (‘brass-coloured alloy’); SNPG, Edinburgh, PG 1826 and PG 1827 (‘bronze’); BM, 1928,0309.1 (‘bronze’); Medical Historical L., Yale U., New Haven, CT (two copies, ‘bronze’, no further details); and UCL, repr. Harte & North 1978, p.83. ‘The appearance [of NPG 4581] is very yellow and gold like in colour. There is an abrasion over the right proper eyebrow and we can see that the ‘Patina’ is not skin deep. Copper alloys often termed bronze are mixtures of metals usually tin or zinc. More specifically a brass is an alloy of copper with zinc. Brasses are usually yellow in colour. The zinc content can vary between few % to about 40%’ (Email from P. Jackson, sculpture conservator, to C. Blackett-Ord, 8 June 2015).
12) See BMJ, 23 Dec. 1922, p.1237.
13) For the list of subscribers (many international), see Howarth n.d.
14) Letter from G.M. Sharpey-Schafer to NPG, 18 Sept. 1967, NPG RP 4581. Geraldine Mary Sharpey-Schafer was Sharpey-Schafer’s younger daughter and only surviving child; in 1967 she also deposited family papers at the Wellcome Trust.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head-and-shoulders profile to right, balding head, no moustache.

Provenanceback to top

By descent to Miss Geraldine Mary Sharpey-Schafer, by whom given to the Gallery, 1967.

Exhibitionsback to top

Society of Scottish Artists, Edinburgh, 1923 (2 medals; no further details).

Reproductionsback to top

Brown 1995, no.4174, p.121.

View all known portraits for Sir Edward Sharpey-Schafer