ARMY, HEAD-QUARTERS, CAMP, GOOJERAT, MARCH 7, 1849. Names of Action. Killed. Wounded. Missing. Total of each Officers. Men. Officers. Men. Officers. Men. Officers. Men. The following is an accurate account of the killed and wounded at Mooltan, from the commencement of the operations to the close thereof:9 officers killed and 55 wounded, 4 of whom have since died. Killed and wounded in all, 1,153. Of these, including Mooltan, we have a total of 41 officers killed and died of wounds; 155 wounded. Rank and file killed and wounded, 3,520; the killed do not much exceed 1,000. May this be the last record I have to send you for many years, as I sincerely hope it is the last of this cam MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WYON, R.A. AND HIS WORKS. [From The Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1851.] Some of the works of William Wyon are better known than those of any other artist in her Majesty's dominions. Every one is glad to carry an assortment of them in his pocket: and though they may continually pass to and fro with little critical examination, that possessor can have no claim to taste, or the just appreciation of artistic grace, who has not, now and then, paid his tribute of admiration to the beauties of their workmanship, as from time to time they may casually have arrested and detained his attention. The merits of Mr. Wyon's less seen performances have heretofore received their due appreciation, not only in various occasional instances, but more particularly in a Memoir compiled in 1837 by Mr. Carlisle, the late Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries; and in the volume entitled Olla Podrida, privately printed in 1844 by Mr. Richard Sainthill, of Cork. From these two works, both privately printed, we shall, on the present melancholy occasion of Mr. Wyon's decease, extract some interesting particulars, which we are kindly permitted to illustrate with a portrait of this eminent artist, engraved at Mr. Sainthill's expense from a drawing by his son Mr. Leonard C. Wyon. Mr. Wyon was of German descent. He came of a race of diesinkers and metal-chasers. His grandfather was the George Wyon who executed the silver cup embossed with the assassination of Julius Cæsar, which was presented by the City of London to John Wilkes, and an engraving of which will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1774, p. 457. His father was Peter Wyon, a diesinker at Birmingham, in partnership with his elder brother Thomas. William Wyon was born in 1795 at Birmingham, and was apprenticed to his father in 1809. When a boy he met with a copy of Flaxman's "Dante" at a gentleman's house. Of Flaxman he knew nothing, but he was so enraptured with his works that he begged permission to study them, which being granted, he copied many if not most of the outlines. This shewed no common discernment in a boy to whom high art was quite a stranger before he met with these works. He always attributed to this his advancement in art, and called Flaxman his real instructor. * We are not sure whether it was after or before this, but it was in the year 1811 that William Wyon engraved a head of Hercules, which was shown to Nathaniel Marchant, R.A. then the best English gem-engraver, and elicited from that gentleman an earnest recommendation that the youth should be employed upon objects of higher art than those which his father was accustomed to receive from the tradesmen of Birmingham. This advice was not lost sight of. Among Wyon's other youthful works were an Antinous, which his father set in gold for his own seal; and a copy of Westall's Woodman, which, when employed in stamping gilt brooches, obtained so large a sale that the manufacturers were anxious to have other similar designs executed by the same hand. In 1812 he visited London, on the invitation of his uncle Thomas Wyon, and set to work to execute a die which might compete for the premium offered by the Society of Arts. The subject was a head of Ceres, which obtained the prize, and which the Society purchased and used as their gold Agricultural medal; as, previously, they had adopted his cousin Thomas Wyon's head of Isis for a similar purpose. He also received another prize from the same Society for a die designed for a naval medal, being an original composition of Victory in a marine car attended by Tritons. In 1815 his uncle Thomas again invited him to London, to assist in engraving the new great seals which were then required. His cousin Thomas had engraved the Great Seal for England; William engraved those for Scotland and Ireland, and also assisted in the execution of many colonial seals. The paragraph we have just quoted is from a recent memoir of Mr. Wyon in The Builder. In the same year Mr. Pingo and Mr. Marchant, the chief and second engravers of the Mint, were superannuated; and Mr. Thomas Wyon junior was promoted to be chief engraver, the number of engravers being then limited to two. It was arranged that a second engraver should be elected by competition, and as the Master (Lord Maryborough) had expressed some objection to the prospect of both engravers being of the same family, William Wyon determined to compete anonymously. He consequently submitted, without a name, a head of the King, which, upon the judgment of Sir Thomas Lawrence, to whom the decision was referred, obtained for him that appointment,―he being then in the twentieth year of his age. Mr. Wyon had now a fair field and an honourabe career before him; but his hopes were darkened, first by the untimely death (in 1817) of his cousin the chief engraver,* and secondly by the appointment to that office of Mr. Pistrucci, then a new importation into the Mint, and a favourite with the Master, Lord Maryborough. Mr. Pistrucci was a skilful artist, but an indolent one; and much of his work devolved on Mr. Wyon, without, it appears, any increase to his pay. Differences arose which led to divisions. At length, in 1823, Mr. Pistrucci wholly withdrew his services, in consequence of the King commanding that his portrait on the coinage should be taken only from his bust by Chantrey. From that period Mr. Wyon became in fact the chief engraver, though the title was retained by Mr. Pistrucci, with the salary of 500l., Mr. Wyon's being only 2001. This continued during the time that Mr. Wallace was Master of the Mint; who, though he highly approved of the execution of an entirely new series of dies which at this time was prepared for the coinage, and in other respects evinced towards Mr. Wyon his personal regard, still failed to render to him the justice which was his due. It is stated, however, by Mr. Carlisle, that Mr. Wallace quitted the Mint with a recommendation to his successor to represent to the Government the peculiarity of Mr. Wyon's situation; and some relief was accordingly procured by the new Master, Mr. Tierney. By this arrangement, which was effected early in * A memoir of Thomas Wyon, written by Mr. Sainthill for the Cork Scientific Society, was printed in our Magazine [the Gentleman's] for 1818, vol. LXXXVIII. i. 179, followed by descriptions of his works in the same volume, pp. 199, 607, part ii. p. 122; and was reprinted in the first volume of the Olla Podrida, p. 22. 1828, Mr. Wyon became actually the chief engraver, but the salaries of that and his former office were directed to be equally divided; so that, from that time, Mr. Wyon and the non-operative Mr. Pistrucci* each received 3501.-the sum of 500l. having been awarded to Mr. Wyon as a compensation for his extra services from 1823 to 1828. From that time until the present, all the coinage of this country and of the colonies has been executed by Mr. Wyon or under his superintendence. His attention was not limited to the discharge of his official duties. His ardent zeal for the improvement of the coinage of his country induced him to submit numerous patterns of new coins from time to time for approval. Amongst these, a beautiful figure of Neptune, for the reverse of a five-pound piece of the naval sovereign, William IV., was highly approved by the Master of the Mint, though it was never executed.† Mr. Wyon's works may be classified under the several heads of coins, pattern-pieces not coined, medals, and seals. His coins of George the Fourth and William the Fourth are from the models of Chantrey; his Queen Victoria coins from models by himself. After pointing out the great vigour and finish of Thomas Simon's coins of the Protector Oliver, Mr. Sainthill † remarks that, "There is equally great characteristic expression in Mr. Wyon's "series of the coins of George IV. and William IV. In the former, "we have all the elegance, and dignity, and courtly appearance, of "the prince of Europe; in the latter, the placid, natural, quiet "aspect of a straightforward well-intentioned man. In both, the 66 workmanship is admirable. The truth with which every line and "muscle is represented, and the softness with which all the parts * Mr. Pistrucci retired from the Mint, retaining the appointment of Medallist to the King. He is still living, at his retreat, "Fine Arts Cottage," near Windsor. His large medal commemorative of Waterloo, the work of very many years, has been often announced as nearly completed, but has not yet appeared. His contributions to the Mint were limited we believe to four successive heads of George the Third-all very unlike as portraits; the George and dragon of the sovereigns and crown-pieces; and the coronation medals of George the Fourth and Victoria. The coronation medal of William the Fourth was the work of Mr. Wyon. This created the first break in that series, from the reign of Charles II. No larger gold coin than 57, has ever been struck in England. The passages marked with inverted commas are either extracts from the Olla Podrida, or were furnished for this memoir by R. S. |