Armorial Panels

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Arthur Radburn
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Joined: 11 Jul 2012, 09:56

Armorial Panels

Postby Arthur Radburn » 08 Sep 2013, 15:57

Some armorial eye candy : one of the panels which Gilbert Bayes sculpted for the British pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair. They were designed by Gerald Cobb, one of the artists at the College of Arms :

Image

This, and thirteen others, were recently sold through Christies. They can be viewed at : http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/furn ... d=&page=55

Weren't these reproduced in Anthony Wagner's book Historic Heraldry of Britain (1939)?

A bit more about them at : http://knickerbocker-style.blogspot.com ... chive.html . According to this blog, each panel is about 8 feet square.
Regards
Arthur Radburn

Iain Boyd
Posts: 167
Joined: 15 Jul 2012, 01:48
Location: New Zealand

Re: Armorial Panels

Postby Iain Boyd » 08 Sep 2013, 22:10

Any idea who the lucky purchaser(s) was/are and where the panels are are now?

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Arthur Radburn
Posts: 1331
Joined: 11 Jul 2012, 09:56

Re: Armorial Panels

Postby Arthur Radburn » 14 Sep 2013, 15:33

Arthur Radburn wrote:Weren't these reproduced in Anthony Wagner's book Historic Heraldry of Britain (1939)?
To answer my own question : yes, they were.

Iain Boyd wrote:Any idea who the lucky purchaser(s) was/are and where the panels are are now?
Alas, no. It'll be interesting to know. They already have quite a history.

According to Wagner's book, and some online information, there were a total of 142 heraldic sculptures : the fourteen 9-foot-high panels sculpted by Gilbert Bayes, and 128 3-foot-high shields sculpted by Cecil Thomas. Because of the outbreak of WWII in 1939, the UK government decided not to take the panels and shields back home after the World's Fair, but to present them to the US government instead.

The fourteen panels were given to the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in NY. In 1951, they were transferred to the Schuller Museum in Rochester, New Hampshire. As the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Canada, bought the Schuller Museum's stock in 1973, it appears that the panels then moved to Canada. Whether they stayed there until they were sold last year is unclear.

The 128 shields were given to the Library of Congress. In the 1960s, the Library gave them to the Smithsonian Institution, which kept some and gave the rest to St Alban's School (attached to the National Cathedral). Some of those retained by the Smithsonian can be seen on the walls of a dining hall. There's a photo on this page, in which one can make out some of the shields : http://www.si.edu/oahp/sibtour/ww9.htm .
Regards
Arthur Radburn


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