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Looking Good at 250 – The Norfolk Mace

Fuller White (English, active 1734-73) City of Norfolk Mace, 1753 Lent by the City of Norfolk

April 1, 2004, marks the 250th anniversary of the presentation of a mace made by the London silversmith Fuller White to the Borough of Norfolk by the acting Royal Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie (1693 – 1770). Silver maces were—and still are—used as ceremonial symbols of royal authority in the cities and boroughs of Great Britain. The British crown adorns the top of the Norfolk Mace with the British Royal Arms as borne by King George II on a disk inside beneath it; and around its head are the arms of Great Britain and emblems of the lands traditionally claimed by the British monarchs: the United Kingdoms of England and Scotland, symbolized by a rose and thistle growing on the same stem; Ireland, symbolized by a harp; and a fleur-de-lis representative of France. Dinwiddie’s efforts to enforce Great Britain’s claim to the Ohio Valley ultimately had the unintended consequence of American Independence for he began the French and Indian War and gave a young Virginian named George Washington his first military officer’s commission. The French avenged the loss of Canada by aiding the Americans in their Revolution. Ironically in 1788, the Norfolk Mace, which was hidden from British forces during the Revolution, was carried as a symbol of the city in a parade that jointly celebrated the Fourth of July and Virginia’s ratification of the new Federal Constitution. This April the Chrysler, home to the Norfolk Mace, will celebrate the anniversary with a special reinstallation in the Museum’s 18th-Century Gallery.

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