Platinum, in its native form of small heavy metallic grains, had been known to exist in South America in the then Spanish colonial province of New Granada (now mostly Colombia and Venezuela), where it was a nuisance to the miners of placer gold. Eventually, as recounted by the present author in the two preceding issues of Platinum Metals Review, samples reached the scientists of Europe and it was recognized, about 1750, as a new metal with some very striking properties of resistance to heat and corrosion.

The chief part in this work was played by English, French, German and Swedish chemists and the French went on to produce (by a difficult process involving the use of arsenic) foil and plate that could be made into articles for decorative and scientific use. The Spaniards, who of course controlled the supply of mineral, were slow to awake to this, but eventually they did so. The Secretary of State for the Indies then asked Don Fausto de Elhuyar, since 1782 Professor of Chemistry at the Seminario at Vergara, to take up research on the subject. This he did, assisted by the French Professor of Physics, Pierre François Chabaneau (frequently spelled Chavaneau by the Spaniards).

In September 1785 Don Fausto had to leave Vergara to make a European tour before going to Mexico as Director General of Mining, and Chabaneau carried on the platinum work. He had made considerable progress by March, 1786, when Don Fausto paid him a short visit, and in that same month he was able to report that he could produce the metal in a malleable and ductile state. As a result of this, he was transferred by the King to an honorary professorship in Madrid and given a laboratory-workshop to be devoted to the refining and fabricating of platinum.

In 1786 or 1787 he went to Paris to meet Marc Etienne Janety, who was (by means of the arsenic process) the only other practitioner of these two arts. There, under Janety’s instruction, he made a number of ornamental articles from platinum that he had brought with him.

On his return to Spain he trained his own silversmith, Don Francisco Alonzo, in the making of jewellery and instruments, and provided him with a room in his workshop. The first platinum object made in Spain in these circumstances was the large chalice made for the King, who presented it in 1789 to Pope Pius VI. An inscription on the plinth reads: