3-016-907 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Seal of the National Shakspeare Committee, 1864. Commemoration of the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth. 'We have engraved the design of the official seal of the National Shakspeare Committee. It is by Mr. John Leighton. It exhibits the Stratford bust of the poet, supported by the Muses of Tragedy and Comedy, both of them furnished with wings, and crowned with tongues of fire. The emblem of Eternity, a Serpent coiled in a circle, encompasses this group. The "Swan of Avon" is below it; while above it are the arms of Shakspeare, and the monograms of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Around the whole are inscribed the well-known sentences: "He was a man, take him for all in all, We shall not look upon his like again. Not for an age, but for all time".' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.