3-028-693 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pastoral staff for the new Bishop of Winchester, 1870. Staff '...lately presented to the new Bishop of Winchester, Dr. Wilberforce, by fifty ladies of the diocese...The presentation took place on the occasion of the Bishop's first official visit to Basingstoke, for the purpose of holding a confirmation, on the last day of January. The Vicar, on behalf of the donors, assured the Bishop that their sole motive was the wish that, on being promoted to a see of higher dignity, he should not appear without that symbol of his office. The Bishop replied that, while he was well assured of the kindly feeling which accompanied the gift, he was glad to accept it officially rather than personally, as an evidence of the esteem in which his high office was held. The staff which was designed and made by Messrs. Hart, Son, Peard, and Co., of Wych-street, and Brook-street, Hanover-square, is of ebony, with massive silver mountings, surmounted by a crook of silver, engraved and parcel-gilt, enriched with gold filigree, and profusely set with amethysts, carbuncles, topazes, turquoises, and other jewels. The arms of the see are enamelled at the junction of the crook with the staff'. From "Illustrated London News, 1870.