PENICILLIN MOLD MEDALLION INSCRIBED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING. FLEMING, ALEXANDER. 1881-1955. Specime...

PENICILLIN MOLD MEDALLION INSCRIBED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING. FLEMING, ALEXANDER. 1881-1955. Specimen of original penicillin mold on blotting paper, mounted by Fleming within a glass disc, held by a black plastic rim, 53 mm diameter, inscribed by Fleming to the reverse, 'The mould that first made penicillin/ Alexander Fleming.' Provenance: Alexander Fleming, presented to his niece Mary Elizabeth (Anne) Johnston; sold Bonhams, London, March 1, 2017, lot 92. RARE PRESENTATION MOLD MEDALLION CREATED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING AND PRESENTED TO HIS NIECE. Fleming grew the present mold sample on blotting paper in his laboratory, then mounted it between spare eyeglass lenses from his brother's ophthalmology practice, creating his famous 'mold medallion.' Fleming created a limited number of these for important people, including the Pope Pius XII (who was given a prototype stuck together with Elastoplast in return for a papal medal when he received Fleming in audience in 1945), the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, Marlene Dietrich, Churchill and Roosevelt: 'These insignificant-looking artefacts soon took on the status of holy relics, and indeed one of them, given by Fleming to Edgar Lawley, Vice-Chairman of St Mary's Board of Governors and a Trustee of the Wright Fleming Institute, in 1952, was actually mounted in a gold desk stand reminiscent of the medieval reliquaries used to house saints' body parts or fragments of the true cross' (Brown, Penicillin Man, 2004, pp 176-7). Fleming's discovery of the antibacterial properties of penicillin is one of the most sensational in medical history. Fleming himself would say of it, 'When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I suppose that was exactly what I did.' He had left a stack of staph cultures in his study next to an open window where they were contaminated by an airborne mold during his holiday. Before disposing of the cultures, he noticed that the mold had prevented normal growth by the staph. Fleming's incredible discovery was somewhat neglected until it was taken up by Howard Florey and his assistant Ernst Chain in 1938, barely in time for World War II. By the end of the War, vast quantities of penicillin were produced every month saving untold millions of lives. In 1945, Fleming, Florey and Chain were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. These mold medallions, relics of Fleming's contribution to humanity, one of the most important advances of the 20th-century, are rare in private hands. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing