Justus Erich Bollmann and Francisco Antonio Zea

The activities of the German-born physician Justus Erich Bollmann in securing a supply of Colombian platinum ore for the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston is traced from the time Bollmann settled in London in 1816. An account is also given of Bollmann’s efforts in 1820 and 1821 to obtain for sale on the London market some 40,000 pounds of platinum from the Government of the then newly established Republic of Colombia, efforts which involved negotiations with, and financial advances made to, the first Vice-President of that Republic, Don Francisco Antonio Zea.