3-011-330 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Eagle lectern in New College Chapel, Oxford, 1864. 'An Eagle Lectern...has recently been presented to New College by the Senior Fellow, the Rev. W. Bigg Wither. It is the work of an amateur, the Rev. R. Baker, of Hargrave, Northamptonshire, Curate of Shelton, Bedfordshire, who exercises his art for the benefit of the restoration-fund of Hargrave Church. The bird is studied from the living eagle, and is almost a reproduction of the one exhibited in the International Exhibition of 1862. The lectern was designed by Mr. E. F. Law, of Northampton, and was highly appreciated by the committee of the Northamptonshire Architectural Society. It consists of a centre octagonal pedestal, upon the cap of which the eagle stands with expanded wings. This pedestal is supported on four sides by flying buttresses...each of which is surmounted by the figure of an angel, representing, on the north, Mercy; on the south, Praise; on the east, Prayer; and on the west, Justice. The lectern is of a large size, standing eight feet high, and is well proportioned'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.