Katheder met een adelaar van Hardman & Co. tentoongesteld op de Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations van 1851 in Londen 1851

Curator: Immediately striking is the ornate detail and almost gothic drama emanating from this piece, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely, its heaviness exudes a solemn, perhaps even forbidding, grandeur. Curator: We’re observing here an engraving of a brass lectern designed by Hardman & Co., exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. These international exhibitions played a crucial role in promoting industrial design and national prestige. Editor: And how well this object speaks to the era's fascination with ornate symbolism. The eagle, of course, surmounts all, wings spread wide. Power and imperial reach made manifest! Curator: Precisely. The eagle has served, and continues to serve, as potent signifier. Here, it anchors notions of authority in service of proclaiming moral and social hierarchies. I see how deeply interwoven the Church was with Victorian structures. Editor: Yes! One senses, also, the lingering influence of Romanticism and its obsession with medieval forms. The decorative flourishes feel less organic and more strategically arranged for maximal symbolic effect, a calculated visual language of power. Curator: These kinds of design features were, in essence, political statements, broadcasting England's global status at that moment in the mid-19th century, amidst an exhibition stage meant for asserting dominance through innovation and aesthetics. Editor: But to what end? One ponders the effectiveness of such pronouncements. Is its intended spiritual meaning overwhelmed by its opulent display? Perhaps Victorian religiosity sought this tangible reassurance. Curator: Well put. Perhaps in examining such design objects within these historical settings we gain an alternative access point for reassessing the cultural mood as it intersects with industrial, even colonial ambitions. Editor: And for me, recognizing echoes of powerful images resonates across history. What are we meant to remember, what narratives take hold? Fascinating how this lectern's visual elements contribute, even unconsciously, to larger ideological frames.