3-011-671 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Testimonial to Alderman R. C. Gardner, late Mayor of Liverpool, 1864. 'The design [by Messrs. Wordley and Co]...consists of an elegant dessert service of eleven pieces. They comprise a centrepiece, 4 ft. 9 in. in height, elaborately ornamented; also two oval fruit-stands, and four large and four small circular fruit-stands...On the principal pedestal are seated personifications of Faith, Justice, Industry, and Commerce, as the four elements of the late Mayor's successful career; and on the top of the column is introduced a figure of Peace, in reference to the auspicious circumstances associated with his term of office...To indicate the interest at all times manifested by the late Mayor in schools and charitable institutions, both in his official and private capacity, Benevolence is represented on one of the oval fruit-stands as offering temporal aid, and in that upon the other as extending spiritual instruction to the poor. Music, Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture have been similarly introduced on the large circular centrepiece; whilst upon the four smaller ones appear figures emblematical of Morning, Noon, Evening, and Night. The figures are executed in frosted silver, bright silver being employed for the bases'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.