Nobel Diplomas
To the best of our extensive knowledge of Nobel-related matters, Chadwick's Nobel diploma is the only Physics diploma ever to have auctioned (at least in the English-speaking world); Niels Bohr's medal sold in 1940, and is in a museum. This is crucial, since, as Dr. Burton Feldman has pointed out in his major work The Nobel Prize (2000), physics was the defining science of the 20th Century, and physics' prestige and that of the Nobel Prize fed off of each other. Also, his diploma is the only one with a spectacularly-embellished cover (made by Beck & Son) ever auctioned.
Nobel diplomas have always been made by firms headquartered in the Stockholm area; nowadays they are made by Fälth & Hässler in a (post-1960's) style which displays, on the cover, only the Laureate's name and a simple rectangle, (see
Nobel Diplomas
page of Nobel Foundation web site) as opposed to the cypher of the Laureate's initials and the other elaborate features employed by F. Beck & Son (pre-1970's). As can be seen by G. von Békésy's 1961 example in the picture on our Front Exterior page, some Beck & Son diploma covers were less elaborate than Chadwick's. On these bases, Chadwick's Nobel set, esp. his diploma, is irreplaceable.
(To be precise, Beck & Son made all Swedish Nobel diplomas until the mid-1960's, and still made the Physics, Chemistry, and Economics diplomas until the early 1970's. The Peace diploma has always been awarded, and produced, in Norway)
(from Swedish)
_______________________________________
.......
ROYAL SWEDISH
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
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HERE GATHERED ON
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14 NOVEMBER 1935
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IN ACCORDANCE WITH
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THE INSTRUCTIONS OF
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ALFRED NOBEL
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AS ESTABLISHED BY TESTAMENT
-
27 NOVEMBER 1895, ARE RESOLVED TO
.
AWARD THE PRIZE ROR THE YEAR 1935,
.
PRESENTED FOR AUTHORING THE
.
IMPORTANT DISCOVERY IN THE
;
DISCIPLINE OF PHYSICS TO
JAMES
CHADWICK
(
signature of
)
President of Royal Academy
(
signature of
)
Secretary of Royal Academy
FOR DISCOVERING NEUTRONS
- STOCKHOLM on 10 DECEMBER 1935
Awards of Outstanding International Importance to Statesmen and Heroines
DIPLOMA Translation and Historical Comments
___________________________________(on seal) FOR DESCENDANTS
(on seal)
ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES