A Victorian silver rowing prize coat and badge

A Victorian silver rowing prize coat and badge,

by Stephen Smith, London 1883,

The oval silver arm badge with laurel and ribbon border, chased with a shield-shaped cartouche depicting the arms of the City of London and the various parishes named in the inscription, centred by an anchor on a heraldically shaded gold ground, encircled by inscribed ribbons, the inscription reading 'Watermen and Lightermens Apprentices Annual Regatta', the number '22' chased between, 'Ferdinand J. Phillips', 'Presented by the inhabitants of the City of London, St. Dunstan, Temple, Lincolns Inn, St. Clement Dane Strand, and St. Martin in the Fields, Treasurer Mr. John Child' and 'Managers and Collectors John W. Audsley, City Waterman, W.H. Campbell, Waterman to Her Majesty', the badge mounted on the arm of a scarlet coat with green facings and wings, silver braid and green piping in the back seams, the badge mounted on a green oval backing patch edged in silver braid, length of plaque 18.5cm.

Provenance: The James Walker Collection, Christie's South Kensington, 13th July 2006, lot 233.