print
- Museum number
- 2017,7013.2
- Title
- Object: Certificate of Membership of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Machinists, Millwrights, Smiths and Pattern Makers
- Description
-
An architectural structure with a mixture of classical and contemporary figures: 1. Fame is crowning 2. a smith and 3. an engineer; the former refuses to mend the broken sword of Mars, god of war, while the latter accepts a design from the muse, Clio; 4. and 5. two kneeling men illustrate Aesop's fable of the bundle of sticks showing that ‘Union is Strength’; three portraits show great inventors of the industrial revolution, 6. James Watt, 7. Samuel Crompton and 8. Richard Arkwright; below 9. a phoenix rises from its ashes and 10 - 14.five scenes show branches of the ‘Iron Trade’; on either side are15 . and 16. views of the ‘Practical results of Science and Labour’ – railways, factories and steam ships; 17. the national flowers – rose, thistle and shamrock - at the base of the design show the unity of British workers. 1852
Engraving with hand-colouring
- Production date
- 1852
- Dimensions
-
Height: 560 millimetres (plate)
-
Height: 664 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 419 millimetres (plate)
-
Width: 504 millimetres (sheet)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Sharples, son of a blacksmith and foundry worker, was a lifelong member of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. When the Society was formed, it organised a competition for the best design for its emblem. Sharples won the prize of £5 in 1851, and his design was published in 1852.
See Francis Klingender, 'Art and the Industrial Revolution' (rev. ed., 1968, pp. 174-176).
This print is a certificate of membership for Ruben Branton of the Hull branch of the Society, admitted 1871.
For a key, see 2019,7092.1
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2018-2019, Oct 4 – 27 Jan, London, BM G90, New Acquisitions: Gozzoli to Kara Walker
- Acquisition date
- 2017
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 2017,7013.2
