{{Short description|English engraver (1826–1891)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{EngvarB|date=February 2020}} [[Image:Leonard-Charles-Wyon.jpg|thumb|right|Leonard Charles Wyon (self-portrait in [[plaster]])]]
'''Leonard Charles Wyon''' (23 November 1826 – 20 August 1891) was a British [[Engraving|engraver]] of the [[Victorian era]] most notable for his work on [[Jubilee coinage|the gold and silver coinage]] struck for the [[Golden Jubilee of Victoria of the United Kingdom#Golden Jubilee and an assassination attempt|Golden Jubilee]] of [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] in 1887 and the bronze coinage of 1860 with the second ("bun") head portrait, in use from 1860 to 1895.
==Career==
The eldest son of [[Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint|chief engraver]] [[William Wyon]] and his wife, Catherine Sophia, née Keele (died 1851), Leonard Charles Wyon was born in one of the houses in the [[Royal Mint]] in 1826, and was educated at [[Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood|Merchant Taylors' School]]. L. C. Wyon's father taught him art and also from his father he inherited great skill in die engraving. By the age of 16 he had already made several medals and some of his early work is displayed in the [[British Museum]]'s [[Numismatics|Numismatic]] collection. He first exhibited at the [[Royal Academy]] in 1843. From 1844 he studied at the Royal Academy Schools and in the same year, at the age of just 18, he became Second Engraver under his father at the [[Royal Mint]]. One of his earliest medals to be widely praised was his 1846 medal of the Irish [[Temperance movement|Temperance]] preacher [[Theobald Mathew (temperance reformer)|Theobald Mathew]]. In 1850 he was commissioned by Queen Victoria to make medallic portraits of the royal children, and in 1851 he executed the reverse of the prize-medal for [[The Great Exhibition]].<ref name=ODNB>Philip Attwood, "Wyon, Leonard Charles (1826–1891)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30170, accessed 2 Jan 2010]</ref> Also in 1851, at the age of 24, he succeeded his father, who had died, with the title of Modeller and Engraver. In 1854 he engraved the 'William Wyon Laudatory Medal', in memory of his father, for the [[Art Union of London]].<ref name=jersey>[http://jerseycoins.com/wyon/LeonardWyon.htm Wyon on the Jersey Coins website]</ref><ref>[http://www.christophereimer.co.uk/single/7773.html William Wyon Laudatory Medal (1854) on the Christopher Eimer Medallic Art website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029165203/http://www.christophereimer.co.uk/single/7773.html |date=29 October 2007 }}</ref> Like his father before him, he also produced dies for postage and other stamps.<ref name=ODNB/> [[Image:Wyon-bun-head-1860.jpg|thumb|right|Wyon's 'Bun Head' penny of 1860 showing his initials L.C.W. beneath Britannia's foot]]
In 1860 L. C. Wyon was invited to prepare designs for the new British bronze coin denominations. It was pointed out to Wyon that on no account was [[Britannia]] to be omitted from the reverse of the new coinage. The Queen herself took a personal interest in the design for the new minor coinage and gave several sittings to him for her portrait. Wyon submitted a number of designs to the Queen for her approval, one of which she adopted. This design included a bronze [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|penny]], commonly known as the 'bun' penny on account of Victoria's hair style.<ref name=jersey/>
Intending to give a bold relief to the designs on the new bronze coins, Wyon engraved the original dies so deeply that they were liable to fracture after relatively few pieces had been struck from them. He therefore had to start again and, after he had produced dies of less bold relief, mass-production of the bronze coinage began.<ref name=jersey/>
Wyon also engraved the dies for the gold and silver [[Jubilee coinage]] struck for the [[Golden Jubilee of Victoria of the United Kingdom|Golden Jubilee]] of [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] in 1887. This coinage, the designs for which were prepared from life by Sir [[Joseph Boehm]], [[Royal Academy|RA]], produced a storm of disapproval, directed particularly against Boehm's portrait of the Queen.<ref name=jersey/>
Wyon, like his father William before him, prepared many dies for coinage use in various parts of the [[British Empire]], including those for Australia, British East Africa, British Guiana, the West Indies, British Honduras, British India; the British India Native States of Alwar, Bikanir, Dwas and Dgar; Canada, Ceylon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Jersey, Malta, Mauritius, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Straits Settlements.<ref name=jersey/> His official medals included the [[South Africa Medal (1854)|South Africa Medal]] (1853), the [[Polar Medal|Arctic]] and [[Baltic Medal]]s, the [[Indian Mutiny Medal]] and the [[South Africa Medal (1877)|South Africa Medal]] (1879). Among his portrait medals are those of [[William Wordsworth]] (1848), [[Robert Stephenson]] (1850), [[Joseph Paxton]] (1854), [[Richard Sainthill]] (1855), [[Henry Hallam]] (1859) and [[William Ewart Gladstone]] (1879).<ref name=ODNB/>
On 22 June 1852 Wyon married Mary Birks (1831–1902) and the couple lived in London, first in [[Maida Vale]] and from 1856 in [[St John's Wood]]. None of their numerous offspring took up their father's profession.
At the age of 64, Wyon died of [[Bright's disease]] and [[apoplexy]] at his home, 54 Hamilton Terrace, St John's Wood, London, on 20 August 1891 and was buried at Paddington Old Cemetery.<ref name=ODNB/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://jerseycoins.com/wyon/LeonardWyon.htm Wyon on the Jersey Coins website] *[https://www.bmagic.org.uk/people/Leonard+Charles+Wyon Wyon biography] on [[Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery]] website *[http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/coins/collection/watson/index10.html Wyon Medal Designs] on the [[Fitzwilliam Museum]] website *[https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/876166 Wyon's Paris Exhibition Medal] on the [[National Library of Australia]] website
{{s-start}} {{succession box | before=[[William Wyon]]| title=[[Coins of the pound sterling]]<br>Obverse sculptor| years=1860| after=[[Joseph Edgar Boehm]]| }} {{end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyon, Leonard Charles}} [[Category:1826 births]] [[Category:1891 deaths]] [[Category:People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood]] [[Category:19th-century English engravers]] [[Category:Engravers from London]] [[Category:19th-century English medallists]] [[Category:British stamp designers|Wyon, Leonard]] [[Category:Deaths from nephritis]] [[Category:19th-century English sculptors]] [[Category:British coin designers]] [[Category:19th-century English male artists]]