in two-handled late 17th century style, engraved with an inscription above a band of alternate flutes and lobes, the base set with Edmond Johnson’s silver medal for the Trinity College tercentenary, the obverse with conjoined, draped busts of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria under ‘AB ELIZABETHA AD VICTORIAM 1592-1892’, the reverse with the college seal, spreading foot with gadroon border, 29cm long, 1161g

The inscription reads: Presented to / Mrs Daniel J. Cunningham / in recognition of her husband's important services / as Secretary during the / Tercentenary Celebration of Trinity College, 1892, / by some of his Fellow Workers.

Provenance: Mrs Daniel J. Cunningham (Elizabeth Barnet Cumming Browne 1851-1929), who had married Daniel John Cunningham in 1878; thence by family descent to the vendors.

Professor D.J. Cunningham, a Scottish ‘son of the manse’, was a physician, zoologist and anatomist, known to many medical students for his Text-Book of Anatomy and his Manual of Practical Anatomy. Following medical studies and work at Edinburgh University, in 1883 he was appointed professor of anatomy at Trinity College Dublin, continuing to work from there for the next twenty years. He and his colleague, John Mallet Purser, ‘transformed the medical school in Trinity College, particularly the teaching methods and the provision of equipment and accommodation. Cunningham was an influential and popular teacher, as well as a powerful figure in college administration.’ (Dictionary of Irish Biography, www.dib.ie, accessed 02.08.2024) having displayed a ‘wonderful power of organization and management’ (Abstract of Minutes of the Royal Irish Academy) when acting as secretary of the Trinity College Dublin tercentenary celebrations. The family returned to Edinburgh in 1903.