Charles Hutton

Inscriptionback to top

Obverse inscribed: 1821 CAROLUS HUTTON, LL.D. R.S.S.¹ AET.LXXXV and below: B.WYON SC./T.WYON DIR
Reverse inscribed: FULMINA BELLI/PONDUSQ.TERRAE/AESTIMATA

¹ i.e. FRS (regalis societatis socius).

This portraitback to top

The inscribed date, 1821, derives from Gahagan’s bust, on which the likeness is evidently based, [1] but Wyon’s medal was only finished in time to be distributed at Hutton’s funeral in January 1823, [2] and an impression was exhibited at the RA that year (no.1007). Benjamin Wyon, the modeller, was then in his twenty-first year. The medal had been commissioned from money left over from the subscription for the bust, [3] the Committee agreeing in 1822 that the balance should be used

'to engrave a Die, for striking off Medals, (one of which to be given in a Case to each Subscriber,) to contain, on the Obverse, the Head of Dr. Hutton, in profile, with an appropriate Legend of Name, Age, & c. -- On the Reverse, Emblems of two Philosophical Discoveries by Dr. Hutton; the one on the Density or Weight of the Earth, and the other on the Exact Force or Strength of Gunpowder; with an appropriate Motto, &c.' [4]
The reverse celebrates Hutton’s Force of fired gunpowder, and the initial Velocities of Cannon balls 1776-78, and his Mean Density of the Earth 1778 (revised 1821).

Footnotesback to top

1) The socle of the Gahagan bust is inscribed: HUTTON, LL.B.R.S.S./OB.1821, AET.85. the ‘OB.’ an unfortunate error.
2) Gentleman's Magazine, XCIII, 1823, I, p 232; European Mag., LXXXIII, 1823, I, p 486.
3) The subscription raised over £168 (£115 from individuals at £1 each and 51 gn. from five public bodies): lists printed in the Tribute of Respect to Charles Hutton ... by the Presentation of his Bust in Marble, [1822], pamphlet 8pp. (copy in NPG archive).
4) As quoted in the Tribute.

Referenceback to top

Brown 1980
L. Brown, A Catalogue of British Historical Medals 1760-1960: The Accession of George III to the Death of William IV, 1980, no.1158.

Provenanceback to top

Mrs Neddy Allen, from whom purchased 1985.

Reproductionsback to top

J. Thomson; H. Fisher 1823.<sup>1

1</sup> See R. Burgess, Portraits of Doctors & Scientists in the Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, 1973, p 182.


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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