Wakges: 1851 Bible Cover Design

Illustration: William Gibbs Rogers. Carved front cover of a Bible, 1851.

Father and son team William Gibbs Rogers and William Harry Rogers, produced carved wooden objects in a number of style eras and purposes. They were enthusiastic contributors to the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. While their products, most of which were carved in boxwood, ranged across the interiors market from wall brackets to wooden cutlery, it was perhaps their wooden carved frames that received the most attention at the exhibition itself.

The frames came in a number of sizes and more importantly in a range of decorative styles, most of which were derived from Europe, rather than England, and were firmly in the styles propagated by France and Italy in particular. Italian Renaissance and French eighteenth century work was fashionably appreciated in England in the mid-nineteenth century. However, the Rogers team of father and son were also aware of the appeal of the gothic and therefore entailed a number of products in this vein.

The piece that perhaps proved interesting to many at the exhibition was the hand carved Bible cover shown in the two illustrations in this article. The first shows the front cover, which has a centre panel with the subject composition of 'the brazen serpent in the wilderness.' It is surrounded by a complex scrollwork border, or frame, that helps to show the accomplishment of both father and son, in woodcarving.

The second illustration shows the carved back cover of the same Bible and, if anything, is even more of an advert for the duo's work, with impressively complex and accomplished carving, showing the range of skills that had been achieved by the Rogers. This of course was the point of the Bible cover. The Great Exhibition was seen by many entrants, whether small hand production teams, or larger national industrial companies, as an opportunity to promote the skill and dexterity of their individual companies products. That many of the products on display at the Great Exhibition were produced specifically as promotional advertising is obvious by the proportion of entries that were deemed not commercially viable. The point was to produce work that combined as many details and extravagances in order to impress, rather than to promote commercially.

Illustration: William Gibbs Rogers. Carved back cover of a Bible, 1851.

Many items had taken weeks to prepare and were either kept afterwards by the company as a permanent marketing tool, or were presented to the Queen as publicly promotional gifts. In this respect, the Rogers produced a hand carved wooden cradle and presented it to the Queen. The gift was mentioned repeatedly in the media of the day, which must have given an impetus to sales and significantly promoted the work of both father and son.

It is sometimes forgotten because of the scale of the event itself, and the inclusion of members of the public on such a vast scale for the first time in England, that the Great Exhibition of 1851 was in fact seen by many commercial enterprises as a wholly market led event, rather than as a spectacular public occasion. Although it was deemed afterwards by critics that many of the entries at the Exhibition, particularly by those that were domestically based, seemed less than satisfactory with a worryingly tentative grasp on any design or decoration principles, it really must be remembered that many of these products were meant to be over the top and were not necessarily for sale as such.

Because, by definition this was the first commercial exhibition on this scale, a number of mistakes were made in promotion and marketing. However, as time went on and the international exhibitions became more regular, the commercial aspects of the exhibitions themselves became much more professional and accurate in both their products and their marketing.

It is unclear what happened to many of the display products from the exhibition, although a certain amount were purchased or requisitioned for the new South Kensington Museum, which was funded from the profits from the exhibition. This museum was eventually to become the world renowned Victoria and Albert Museum in London. As to the Rogers Bible cover itself, it seems to have long gone and is probably not in existence any more. However, some of the father and son duo's carved work can still be seen, and it is interesting to gauge the skills base involved in the Rogers work by examining an example of their carving. Interestingly an example of a carved boxwood bracket can be found at the Victoria and Albert Museums website, which can be found here. The piece was produced by William Gibbs Rogers, but was designed by his son William Harry Gibbs. This tended to be standard procedure in the company, the son having a particular skill for design and decorative work.

Both father and son were involved in the promotion and revival of hand skills during the mid-nineteenth century. That they used the Great Exhibition as a useful promotional tool is evident. However, the amount of work and research that was also involved in their adaptation and understanding of hand production, is perhaps less evident, but no less important. Individuals such as William Gibbs Rogers and William Harry Rogers did much to strengthen the hand skills base of the nineteenth century, which was used to later promote and define the English Arts & Crafts movement, a movement that would have quickly withered and died without the firm foundation put in place by such individuals as the Rogers.

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Friday, June 10, 2011

1851 Bible Cover Design

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