Context (References)
Miller, W.H. (1856). 'On the Construction of the New Imperial Standard Pound, and its Copies of Platinum; and on the Comparison of the Imperial Standard Pound with the Kilogramme des Archives.' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol. 146(3). pp 753-946.
Event Date 1856
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Acquisition Details)
Transferred from the University Library in 1888 (see MM1/2/8).
Event Date 1888
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Display)
Gunther notes that the greater part of the objects included in his book were also included in the Loan Exhibition of Historic Apparatus in Cambridge, held in the East Room of the Old Schools in June 1936. It is therefore likely, but not certain, that this object was included in the exhibition.
Event Date 6/1936
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Gunther, R.T. (1937). Early Science in Cambridge. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 28, no. 15
Event Date 1937
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
R.T. Gunther (1937): '2-pound flat weight marked with Tudor rose.'
Event Date 1937
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Flat weight (2 lbs) ornamented with the Tudor rose, probably marked with the letter 'H'.
Event Date 16/2/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Analysis)
According to a handwritten, undated list in the archive (MM1/2/8), the 13 weights and 2 measures transferred to the Museum by the University Registry in 1885 and accessioned as 1886.52.1-15 were later added to in 1888 by a transfer from the University Library, creating a retrospective idno of 1886.52.16. The archive does not give any further details about this weight, or in fact weights, but the thread can be picked up in R.T. Gunther's 'Early Science in Cambridge' exhibition catalogue, in which he lists '4- and 2-pound flat weights, temp. Henry VIII. Marked with Tudor roses... used by Prof. Miller 'On the Construction of the New Imperial Standard Pound and its copies in Platinum. Phil. Trans. 1856' (1937, p. 28). Gunther doesn't details who loaned those weights, but a list in MAA's archive (GO1/1/16) suggests it's likely MAA. This is made more plausible upon reading W.H. Miller's paper, in which he describes 'two weights, one of 2 pounds, the other of 4 pounds avoirdupois, ornamented with the Tudor rose, and marked with the letter H, and therefore probably of the reign of either Henry VII or Henry VIII, are preserved in the University Library, Cambridge' (1856, p. 756). Finally, an annotation in the 1886 Accession Register for 1886.52 notes that '5 weights of Henry VII, bell-shaped, & 2 flat' were sent on loan to the Science Museum on 16 March 1939 implies that, like the 5 bell-shaped weights [1886.52.7-11], the '2 flat' weights dated to the reign of Henry VII (or VIII, as Gunther suggests). It seems likely, therefore, that the two flat weights (4 and 2 pounds) dating to the reign of Henry VII or Henry VIII and previously held by the University Library, were those transferred to MAA in 1888, assigned the retrospective idno of 1886.52.16 and then later sent on loan to the Science Museum in 1939.
Event Date 16/3/2025
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)