Sketch Design for a Municipal Mace for Manchester

Created by Walter Crane

Date: 1895
Usually date of exhibition rather than production

Object class: religious and ritual equipment

Object type: mace, sketch

Description: 'The Mace is surmounted with the Royal Crown, indicative of the delegated authority of the Sovereign. The figure is intended to typify the industrial City of Manchester, and it is enclosed in the letter "M" to make it still further emphatic as the emblem of the Manchester municipality. Below is a globe, symbolical of the world itself, around which the city motto "Concilio et Labore" appears. The trade of Manchester with all quarters of the earth is symbolised by the beaks of ships, the sails of which form the ridges of the mace. Lower on the ball is the city shield of arms alternating with the national arms and emblems. Below, again, is a series of figures under canopies, symbolising the source of the commonwealth of the city and its prosperity and administration. One of these, which is shown in front of the design, typifies the Ship Canal pouring from an urn a perpetual stream, which meanders in the form of a ribbon around the stem of the mace to the foot. The other figures may be Labour, Science, Commerce, Liberty and Justice. The fish at the next joint further develop the idea of the connection of Manchester with the ocean, which is again suggested by the ships sustained by Nereids seated on the sphere which forms the termination of the mace. The mace will be of silver gilt, enamel being introduced in the crown, the motto, the various arms emblazoned on it, and some other points of decoration'.

Citing this record

'Sketch Design for a Municipal Mace for Manchester', 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=msib5_1227792238, accessed 25 Mar 2023]