3-008-677 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition - Prize Medal - obverse, 1862. Design by Maclise, made by Leonard C. Wyon. 'The ill effect of crowding the composition is particularly observable in the lion, for the forepaws indicate the attitude of crouching over the trident, while the hind quarters, from the necessity in this view of the animal of forcing them into the design, look as if foreshortened in the recumbent position. Besides the lion there are no less than seven figures... Britannia, raised on a dais, is armed with the usual Minerva-like helmet...The rose of England serves as an ornament to the edge of her throne. Female impersonifications...await the wreath before her...Machinery stands beside the cogged wheels of a machine, and supports a heavy press on her shoulders; Manufactures, richly attired, unfolds a roll of some gorgeously-figured fabric, and by her side are a casket, a vase, a goblet, and an altar cross; the last intended doubtless to indicate that the choicest of her productions are consecrated to the service of religion. Raw Produce is, properly, dressed very simply, a fur skin covering the lower part of her figure. She holds...fruits, cereals, and geological specimens - gold nuggets, we are at liberty to suppose, among the rest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.