Cabinet of minerals, rocks and fossils

James Tennant (1808-1881) was elected a fellow of the Geological Society in 1838 and was appointed to lecture in mineralogy on the recommendation of Michael Faraday. In 1840 he became mineralogist by appointment to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and as such it fell to Tennant to supervise the cutting of the Koh-i-Noor diamond for the crown jewels. His shop on the Strand was three doors down from the Geological Society of London, then at Somerset House, and in 1844 Gideon Mantell commented that 'it had become too well known to require comment' (Medals of Creation, Vol. 2 (London: Bohn, 1844), p. 987).