Summary

Museum Victoria purchased an extensive collection of Ready electrotypes of coins and medals from British Museum to obtain copies of items where it was not possible to obtain originals at the time. The acquisitions occured at the instigation of by Alfred S Kenyon.

Museum Victoria purchased an extensive collection of Ready electrotypes of coins and medals previously held in the British Museum from the 1870s to 1933.

These were made by electrotypist Robert Cooper Ready (1811-1901) and his sons Charles Joseph Ready (1849-1922) and August Papworth Ready (born circa 1857).

Major acquisitions of electrotypes were instigated by Alfred S Kenyon (1867-1943), hydraulic engineer, public servant, ethnologist, historian and numismatist. As honorary numismatist to the National Gallery of Victoria, Kenyon persuaded the trustees of the Felton Bequest to build the electrotype collection, at a cost of around 6,000 pounds.

The main focus was to purchase electrotypes of items where it was not possible to obtain originals in the market at the time.

References

Poynter, John (2003). Mr Felton's Bequests, Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, p. 398
Report of the Trustees of the Public Library, Museums and National Gallery of Victoria for the year 1933, p. 5

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