President's Badge, Royal Society of British Sculptors
Created by Richard Louis Garbe
Co-created by Harry George Murphy
Date: 1930
Usually date of exhibition rather than production
Object class: numismatics
Object type: badge
Material: animal - ivory, metal - gold
Technique: carved, enamelled
Description: A central female figure carved in ivory set on a circular gold and enamel badge. The chain is based on an eighteenth century design and records the names and dates of president's of the society.
Notes: The commission for the President's Badge was first discussed in 1922. The Annual Report (Royal Society of British Sculptors) from that year records that 'it is felt strongly by the Council that the Society should have a President’s badge, as the other Royal Societies have: besides wearing it at General Meetings, it is considered it would be an advantage to the Society that the Presidents in the future wear it at public functions where "decorations" are worn. On financial grounds this has hitherto been postponed, but possibly some of Sir Thomas Brock's legacy might with advantage be devoted to doing this, and it might act also as a small memorial to him, of record is made to that effect upon it' (pp. 6-7).
The Society's 1929 report records that the badge has 'been designed and carried out by Mr. Richard Garbe, A.R.A., and it is most satisfactory that a badge worthy of the Society has been produced. The cost is to be defrayed from the money left by the Society's first President, Sir Thomas Brock, R.A., and as a memorial to him' (p. 6).
Exhibitions and other Events
Exhibited at Exhibition of Small Works by British Sculptors (Royal Society of British Sculptors), 1931
10 March 1931 - 31 March 1931
Makers, Owners and Exhibitors
Commissioned by Royal Society of British Sculptors
1929 (Circa) - 1930
The society first discussed commissioning badge in 1922. Richard Garbe designed and made the badge after Charles Sargeant Jagger failed to propose a design (1928)
Owned by Royal Society of British Sculptors
Sources
Royal Society of British Sculptors. Annual Report of Council and Accounts For the Year ending 21 December 1922. To be Presented at the Eighteenth Ordinary General Meeting, 1923
26 February 1923
pp. 6-7
Citing this record
'President\'s Badge, Royal Society of British Sculptors', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/object.php?id=msib4_1269191169, accessed 29 Sep 2023]
