Sir Isaac Newton's Drinking Flagon

3D Model

Probably sometime in the 1690s, Isaac Newton (1642-1727) gave this wooden drinking flagon to John Wickins (1645-1719), his one-time chamber-fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.

The flagon is a barrel construction, made of 2 or 3 different wood species. It is 5½ inches high & 3¼ inches at its widest. The interior is stained with what is likely beer & ale residue. Digital measurements reveal it would hold .44 litres, or 80% of an imperial pint to the stain line.

A scientist & a historian have traced the history of how the flagon descended through the Wickins & Hussey-Freke families, moving across several English counties before arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada. Newton used beer in experiments & as a solvent for his writing ink, which implies that he wrote his famous Principia mathematica in beer.

https://royalsociety.org/news/2025/03/isaac-newton-beer-mug/

Scanned by Steven Dey, July 2025 at the Royal Society. Commissioned by Dr Stephen D Snobelen, University of King’s College, Halifax.