Shield forming part of the exterior decoration of the Royal Albert Hall, plaster cast, London, 19th century

This shield bears an eagle grasping a baby in swaddling-clothes on a cap of maintenance. It has an inscription reading SANS CHANGER.

Historical significance: Fowke called Sykes 'master and inventor of English cinque-cento decoration'.

These casts were copied after the terracotta shields produced by Godfrey Sykes (1824 or 1825 - 1866) the British designer and painter, for the exterior decoration of Royal Albert Hall. Sykes was trained by Alfred Stevens (1817-1875) at the Sheffield School of Art in the Renaissance Revival manner. He created these designs while employed by the architect Francis Fowke (1823-1865). Fowke also contracted Sykes to design the museum terracotta columns, stained glass, bronze, ironwork, decorations in majolica and mosaic, and tile pavements for the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) beginning in 1861. Neither Sykes nor Fowke lived to see the finished construction of Royal Albert Hall in 1871. Sykes's many assistants continued using and modifying his designs after his death.

20th-century plaster cast after 19th-century British original

Shield by Godfrey Sykes (1824 or 25-1866), forming part of the exterior decoration of the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington. It has an inscription reading SANS CHANGER. Sykes created these designs while employed by the architect Francis Fowke (1823-1865). Fowke also contracted Sykes to design the terracotta columns, stained glass, bronze, ironwork, decorations in majolica and mosaic, and tile pavements for the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A), beginning in 1861. Neither Sykes nor Fowke lived to see the finished construction of the Royal Albert Hall in 1871.

The present cast is one of a group of 25 reproductions of Sykes's shields for the Royal Albert Hall: from REPRO.1901-4 to REPRO.1901-27, and REPRO.1904-9.

REPRO.1904-9