3-016-772 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Testimonial to George Smith, Esq., L.L.D., late Chairman of the Cornwall Railway Company, 1864. 'The directors of the Cornwall Railway Company...presented...an elegant drawing-room clock and pair of candelabra, with an address thanking George Smith for his labours in the promotion and construction of that line during the last twenty years...We have engraved the central piece of plate, there being three pieces of silver - viz., a candelabrum with four lights, surmounted with a basket to hold flowers; and two small epergnes [made] by Messrs. Garrard, of the Haymarket - not made to order, but selected from their stock...The base of the candelabrum is a large circular plateau, resting upon three claws and supporting an elaborately chased pedestal, which on one of the compartments, or shields, bears a suitable inscription. Upon this pedestal is a female figure, in dead silver, gracefully reclining against a palm-tree, and raising one hand to an overhanging bough, while she holds a basin in the other hand. By her side is a panther rising on its hind legs, as if to drink out of the basin. Above these figures spread the palm branches and leaves, to which the taper-holders are affixed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.