2-995-927 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Trowel used by the Prince of Wales in the completion of Victoria Bridge, 1860. 'To-day, according to a memorandum which has been issued detailing the arrangements made for the tour of the Prince of Wales [future King Edward VII] in British North America, the Victoria Bridge over the St. Lawrence will be completed and formally opened by his Royal Highness. We give an Engraving of the Trowel with which the Prince will perform the crowning act of masonry to this magnificent structure. The beaver (a popular emblem of this important colony) forming the handle of the trowel is modelled from nature. The branch of the tree on which the animal is placed, and the leaves which spring from it and form the border of the blade, are the Canadian maple, also an attribute of the colony. The national emblem, the rose, shamrock, and thistle, and the Prince of Wales's plume, &c., speak for themselves. The reverse of the trowel has a superb engraving of the Victoria Bridge, from a photograph. The whole of this graceful piece of art-workmanship is executed in oxydised silver from entirely original models, and is the work of Messrs. Phillips, Cockspur-street'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.