Prize Certificate for Christmas 1873

An anonymous designer

Chromolithographic print

4½ x 3 inches

Christian Lyrics, on recto of front free endpaper

Inscribed to ‘Miss Annie Baldwin’ for ‘Good Conduct’, this is a typical prize certificate of the period. The school is unidentified except for the names of the principals, ‘Misses Skinner and Goldsmith’ of ‘Suffolk House’ which was in all likelihood a finishing school for young ladies of the sort exemplified by Miss Pinkerton’s in Thackeray’s novel of 1847, Vanity Fair. The choice of a pious title as the prize suggests that the emphasis was on diligent behaviour rather than academic prowess; noticeable too is the lack of a Latin inscription. The certificate itself is of the cheese-paring variety, with parts of it having been touched up in red watercolour paint to intensify its visual impact.

Click on image to enlarge it.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.