A certificate that stood the test of time


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Extract from the Centenary Issue of the School Magazine, 1925

In the 1843 Report there is a description of a Certificate designed by the Art Master, Mr. Bishop, engraved on steel, and described as follows:-

"At the head of the Certificate, there is a view of the Institution, and on each side, there are figures of Homer, Cicero, Socrates, Milton, Shakespeare, Johnson, Newton, Montaigne, Dalton and Michael Angelo, embelmatical of 1iterature, science and the fine arts. At the bottom there are the arms of the Institution, a steam-engine, a printiug-press, with heads of Watt and Franklin, and other emblematical devices."

The printing-press depicted is ornamented with an Eagle and Serpents, and is of the type known as the Columbia. There is a hand-press in Messrs. Tinling's printing-works in Victoria Street which may have served the artist for a model.

This copy was awarded in 1984, 143 years later!