Chain Of Office Gallery

Installation of a Knight of the Bath, 1844. Creator: Unknown

Installation of a Knight of the Bath, 1844. The Order of the Bath is conferred by Queen Victoria. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one of its elements. ...the Ceremony of the Sovereign investing a Knight with the Order, in the Throne-room, at St. James's Palace...The Collar is of gold, weighing thirty ounces Troy weight, and is composed of nine imperial crowns, and eight roses, thistles, and shamrocks, issuing from a sceptre, enamelled in their proper colours, tied or linked together with seventeen gold knots, enamelled white, having the badge of the Order pendant therefrom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lord Mayor Beckford, (1709-1770), c1771, (1925). Creator: Unknown

Lord Mayor Beckford, (1709-1770), c1771, (1925). Political figure in 18th-century London, who twice held the office of Lord Mayor of London (1762 and 1769). His wealth came largely from his plantations in Jamaica and the large numbers of slaves working on these plantations. Engraving showing a detail of a statue of Beckford designed by Agostino Carlini for the Guildhall, but which was rejected. From "London in the Eighteenth Century", by Sir Walter Besant. [A. & C. Black, Ltd., London, 1925]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Richard III, 1859. Artist: GN Gardiner

Richard III, 1859. King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. After a painting at the National Portrait Gallery by an unknown artist. From The History of England Div VIII by David Hume & Tobias Smollett. [Virtue & Co., London, 1859]

© The Print Collector