Shield forming part of the exterior decoration of the Royal Albert Hall, South Kensington.

Plaster cast of a shield depicting a bull's head between the letters H and C on a coronet, below which is a scroll inscribed DEUM COLE REGEM SERVA.

Cast of shield created in 1901 in London. The original terracotta shield was created between 1861 and 1866 for the exterior decoration of the Royal Albert Hall. This cast is one of a number of casts taken of the 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.

Making plaster copies is a centuries-old tradition that reached the height of its popularity during the 19th century. The V&A's casts are of large-scale architectural and sculptural works as well as small scale, jewelled book covers and ivory plaques, these last known as fictile ivories.

The Museum commissioned casts directly from makers and acquired others in exchange. Oronzio Lelli, of Florence was a key overseas supplier while, in London, Giovanni Franchi and Domenico Brucciani upheld a strong Italian tradition as highly-skilled mould-makers, or formatori.

Some casts are highly accurate depictions of original works, whilst others are more selective, replicating the outer surface of the original work, rather than its whole structure. Like a photograph, they record the moment the cast was taken: alterations, repairs and the wear and tear of age are all reproduced in the copies. The plasters can also be re-worked, so that their appearance differs slightly from the original from which they were taken.

To make a plaster cast, a negative mould has to be taken of the original object. The initial mould could be made from one of several ways. A flexible mould could be made by mixing wax with gutta-percha, a rubbery latex product taken from tropical trees. These two substances formed a mould that had a slightly elastic quality, so that it could easily be removed from the original object. Moulds were also made from gelatine, plaster or clay, and could then be used to create a plaster mould to use for casting.

When mixed with water, plaster can be poured into a prepared mould, allowed to set, and can be removed to produce a finished solid form. The moulds are coated with a separating or paring agent to prevent the newly poured plaster sticking to them. The smooth liquid state and slight expansion while setting allowed the quick drying plaster to infill even the most intricate contours of a mould.
Flatter, smaller objects in low relief usually require only one mould to cast the object. For more complex objects, with a raised surface, the mould would have to be made from a number of sections, known as piece-moulds. These pieces are held together in the so-called mother-mould, in order to create a mould of the whole object. Once the object has been cast from this mother-mould, the piece-moulds can be easily removed one by one, to create a cast of the three-dimensional object.

This shield was designed by Godfrey Sykes, forming part of the exterior decoration of the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. It bears a bull's head between the letters H and C on a coronet, below which is a scroll inscribed DEUM COLE REGEM SERVA. 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.1901-4