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Plate 118:  Adding a souvenir mug to the collection, Part 4: making a drawing of the lion rampant guardant for a presentation box
(This plate added SEP 2004)

The 1977 Silver Jubilee mug has now been officially added to the collection. Specifically, the index number, 132, has been entered into the database index (see Plate 115), and the mug has been physically tagged with the number 132 (see Plate 116).

The next step is to design a box for the mug. The box will be decorated in a manner such that the mug can be attractively displayed without being removed from the box. Such a box is sometimes called a presentation box.

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SUBJECT: Lion Rampant Guardant, pencil drawing blocking in proportions SCANNER: Hewlett-Packard HP-4100 FILE: JPEG from HP PrecisionScan LT EDITING: Adobe Photoshop SUBJECT: Lion Rampant Guardant, pencil drawing filling in details SCANNER: Hewlett-Packard HP-4100C FILE: JPEG from HP PrecisionScan LT EDITING: Adobe Photoshop SUBJECT: Lion Rampant Guardant, details inked over pencil drawing SCANNER: Hewlett-Packard HP-4100C FILE: JPEG from HP PrecisionScan LT EDITING: Adobe Photoshop
Lion Rampant Guardant, preliminary pencil sketch on 3-by-5 inch white index card. Lion Rampant Guardant, details added in pencil. Lion Rampant Guardant, details inked over pencil drawing.
The presentation box should provide an attractive setting for the mug. Also, the presentation box can be decorated in a manner that repeats the decoration on the mug. In Plate 116, we pointed out that the mug is decorated with pictures of wild animals, crowns, flags and scrolls. This style of decoration is known as a heraldic motif. In the sense we are using it here, a motif is a central idea behind a work of art. Heraldic motif means that the central idea behind the decoration is heraldry (see the following encyclopedia reference on heraldry):

Encyclopędia Britannica. 2004. Encyclopędia Britannica Premium Service. 14 Sept. 2004 "heraldry.".


One of the most striking elements of a heraldic motif is the portrayal of wild animals in the form of heraldic supporters (see Plate 116). Our mug is decorated with two such animals: a lion on the left and a unicorn on the right.

The series of three pictures shown above illustrates how a drawing of one of the supporters (the lion) was copied from the mug. First, a rough pencil sketch was made of the lion on the mug. In the rough pencil sketch, the collector simply "blocked in" the larger parts of the lion (the crown, the face, the mane, the feet, the tail) on a blank 3-inch by 5-inch white index card. Then, details were added in pencil, copied directly from the lion on the mug. Finally, the pencil details were traced over with black ink.
Note:  The spelling gardant in the tops of the drawings shown above is from the old French. In the main text, we use the modern English spelling: guardant.
Subsequent plates will show how this drawing will become part of the mug's presentation box.

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