William Mossop is one of the first Irish creators of commemorative medals. Mossop was born in 1751 to William Brown, whose father died early and his mother remarried, taking her new husband's surname. After finishing school, the young man immediately became an apprentice to John Stone, who carved office seals, coats of arms, etc.
In 1782, William Mossop, at the request of a friend, looked at a collection of medals that were put up for sale. He was so impressed by the items he saw that he bought several copies, and then began making medals to his own designs. The first recorded works are dedicated to the theatrical actor Thomas Ryder and the doctor Henry Quinn. William Mossop began to receive increasingly serious orders, for example, in 1786 he made a medal for the Royal Irish Academy.
William Mossop's designs were used to mint medals for the Royal Dublin Society, the Brotherhood of St. Patrick, and other organizations. Despite his creative success, this activity did not bring in much money. In 1793, William Mossop was hired by Camac, Kyan & Camac, for which he designed tokens for five years. He also designed seals for government agencies.
In 1788, the master had a son, William Stephen Mossop, who continued his father's business. He was very young when William Mossop died, and in 1804, shortly before his father's death, he presented his first medal. Soon the young medalist signed a contract to make dies for the company in Dublin.
In the following years, William Stephen Mossop minted medals for the Farmers' Society of Ireland, the Cork Institute, the Society of Arts in London, and others. The medal in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the reign of George III, issued in a fairly large print run, was especially popular. In 1820, the artist began work on a large project dedicated to forty outstanding Irish figures. He participated in major exhibitions and received several awards for his work. William Stephen Mossop died in 1827 at the age of 39 - such an early death, like the death of his father, may have been caused by the dangerous chemicals that both masters used in the process of making medals.
Source:
britishmuseum.org
