In 2007 The Micropalaeontological Society commissioned and awarded the Brady Medal, the first medal in the history of the Society. This report records the various stages in that process. The inaugural recipient of the medal, Professor John Murray of the University of Southampton, was presented with the award at the Annual General Meeting of the Society, held at University College London on 7 November 2007.
THE NAME
There was no shortage of ‘possibles’ when TMS committee had the nice but tricky task of deciding the name of the medal. The final choice of the name met with strong approval by all at the Committee meeting on 14 March 2007, at which the criteria and mechanism for awarding the medal were also agreed. The medal is named in honour of George Stewardson Brady (1832–1921) and his younger brother Henry Bowman Brady (1835–1891), in recognition of their pioneering studies in micropalaeontology and natural history. Their father was a medical Doctor and they received their early education at Quaker schools in the northeast of England. George Brady went on to become Professor of Natural History at Newcastle College of Physical Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society, and is best known for his work on ostracods. Henry Brady made his way as a successful pharmacist before turning full time to the study of micro-organisms, especially foraminifera; he also received the accolade of FRS. Over their entire adult lives they published what are now deemed fundamental contributions to the then emerging science of micropalaeontology. The microfossil collections that they diligently amassed, such as those obtained from the voyages of HMS Challenger, have proved no less important. Their legion of papers, monographs and reports form invaluable cornerstones of scientific reference today.
THE SCULPTOR AND THE DESIGN
Anthony Stones was commissioned to undertake original sculptures for the medal, which was to be cast in bronze. Born in Glossop, England, he attended Manchester College of Art and is a citizen of New Zealand, where he spent much of the early part of his career. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and a past President (1999–2004) of The Society of Portrait Sculptors. His sculptures are in public and private collections world-wide. Examples of his work are the life-size equestrian bronze statue of the Roman Emperor Nerva in Gloucester; the commemorative life-size bronze statues of Captain Cook at the Royal Maritime Museum at Greenwich and Gustav Holst in Cheltenham; and portrait bronzes of the Nobel laureates Dorothy Hodgkin and Seamus Heaney at colleges of Oxford University. A group of life-size bronze statues to be sited at the Royal Enclosure at Ascot Racecourse in Berkshire, and eight 2 m-high ancient Olympic runners destined for the Olympic site in Beijing are works that will be unveiled in 2008.
TMS committee considered that, if possible, it would be apposite to depict portraits of George and Henry Brady and a period microscope on the medal. As TMS Chairman, I visited Anthony Stones at his home in Oxfordshire on two occasions in order to discuss the design of the medal and then to help choose the final one from several prototype designs. On my first visit he produced initial sketches of the medal design within a minute (Fig. 1). Only two photographs, one of each brother, were available on which to base the portraits. The design and clay modelling of the Brady Medal presented particular objectives and challenges, as Anthony Stones has kindly documented for the archives of TMS (Letter, 5 December 2007):
These days a coin or medal is designed and modelled several times larger than the finished object. This model is made in plaster by the sculptor and scaled down and engraved by technicians. In the case of the Brady Medal I wanted the hand of the sculptor to be present at all stages. To do this I went back to the original method of making a medal, which was brought to perfection in the Italian Renaissance. In this method the sculptor makes his prototype at the same size as the medal. The size I determined (85 millimetres) was on the same as the classic examples of the Renaissance.
The design of the obverse, which required two portraits of equal status, presented a problem. In nine cases out of ten the obverse bears a single portrait. I made six different designs, with varying arrangements of the Bradys’ heads giving them equal status, and none of them satisfactory. Finally I overlapped the two profiles, giving the elder brother priority and providing the solution. They look to the right because this has a positive connotation. To have them looking to the left would have had the opposite effect. While modelling the two portraits I worked in many different lights (sunshine and artificial) and with the light coming from varying directions.
The reverse has an image of the instrument which makes micropalaeontology possible, the binocular microscope. This one is based on drawings from antique specimens on exhibition at the Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford. The image stands on the area at the bottom of the reverse side of the medal, known as the exergue. Traditionally dates or symbols occupy this space and it seemed the logical place to have the name of the recipient engraved.
I wanted a classical face for the lettering and looked for something as close as possible to the alphabet of Trajan as engraved on the column. The lettering had to be raised from the surface of the medal and not engraved, thus keeping in harmony with the raised reliefs of the portraits and the microscope.
Anthony Stones with initial sketches for the Brady Medal (16 March 2007).
It is pleasing to record that in his letter to TMS (5 December 2007), Anthony Stones noted that,
I am delighted that the Brady Medal was so well received. I rate the medal as one of my best works at this scale. … Again, thank you for making it possible for me to work on this challenging project and to reintroduce Renaissance methods into medal design.
CASTING AT THE FOUNDRY
The original clay sculptures for the medal were consigned to Pangolin Editions of Chalford, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, a craftsman company that Anthony Stones has used to cast many of his bronzes. Through the guidance of its founder Rungwe Kingdom, Pangolin is recognized widely as one of Europe's leading sculpture foundries and one of the few that still practises the traditional skills of lost wax investment casting (Fig. 2). Pangolin also specializes in a wide range of patinas, some of which were used in the casting of the Brady Medal. The foundry undertakes casting for an international clientele and at any scale up to tens of metres (as in, for example, work by Damien Hirst and Lynn Chadwick).
Rungwe Kingdom of Pangolin Editions foundry, Chalford, with moulds of the Brady Medal (23 September 2007).
In September 2007 I was accompanied by TMS former Chairmen Professor Alan Lord and Dr John Whittaker on a visit to the foundry, to check on progress towards the completion of the medal. Together with Rungwe Kingdom we toured the site and were treated to a fascinating insight into the casting process by viewing a wide variety of bronzes in the various stages of production. I collected the finished originals of the medal, four of which were produced in the first casting, from Chalford on 3 November 2007 (Fig. 3).
The Brady Medal.
It is, indeed, the case that each recipient of the Brady Medal receives a work of art, rather than a stamped medal as is the norm.
THE FIRST BRADY MEDALLIST
As its contribution to the bicentenary celebrations of the Geological Society of London, the 2007 AGM of TMS was devoted to the theme of ‘Micropalaeontological Heroes’. Appropriately, two of the five talks acknowledged the lives and work of the Brady brothers. TMS was also delighted that the President of the Geological Society, Professor Richard Fortey FRS, could be present and make a short address to the meeting.
The Brady Medal is the highest award of The Micropalaeontological Society and is awarded to scientists who have had a major influence on micropalaeontology by means of a substantial body of excellent research. When it came to deciding who would prevail from the short-list of candidates, TMS was conscious of setting a ‘bench mark’ in the inaugural year of the award. So it was with great pleasure that the Society honoured John Murray (Fig. 4), in recognition of his seminal and sustained contribution to micropalaeontology, not to mention his distinguished service to the scientific and academic community in general.
The First Brady Medallist.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to Anthony Stones for kindly providing his notes on the Brady Medal; to Alan Lord, John Whittaker and Michal Kucera for comments on the text; and to David Horne for Figure 4.
- © 2008 The Micropalaeontological Society
