3-008-613 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Chased silver shield, by Messrs. Lambert, the silversmiths, of Coventry-street, in the International Exhibition, 1862. 'Perhaps to show that this shield is thoroughly English the exhibitors wisely reject the French word repoussé, which would, however, accurately describe the work, and adhere to the older English and less-used participle, embossed. The shield has been designed and executed by Mr. Thomas Pairpoint...and illustrates the defeat of the Iceni by Suetonius, and the death of their Queen, Boadicea...the work is ambitious of great promise; but its execution, often careless and somewhat clumsy, does not by any means equal its promise. The conception of the struggling crowd of figures, Briton in deadly struggle with Roman, the intense hatred in the faces, the tension of the muscles, and the evident feeling of the artist in his work, are deserving of all praise; but Mr. Pairpoint...is wrong in foreshortening, and exhibits grave faults in drawing. But, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the young artist is one of great promise...Mr. Pairpoint has, besides, the merit of being thoroughly English, without affectation of style, and perfectly pure and chaste in treatment, which is more than can be said of the foreign artists'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.