Captain Francis Fowke RE (1823-1865)

Woolner met Holman Hunt and Millais through D.G. Rossetti and became the only sculptor member of the Pre-Rapaelite Brotherhood in 1842. Disillusioned after his failure in the competition for the Westminster Abbey Wordsworth Memorial, Woolner emigrated to Australia in 1852 in search of gold. He did not find gold but work as a sculptor, building up an extensive practice in portrait medallions. After his return to Britain in 1854 he continued to specialise in portraiture: medallions, busts and public statues. His bronze figure of Captain Cook for Hyde Park, Sydney is considered his masterpiece. Woolner was also an acclaimed poet. Woolner was elected ARA in 1871 and a Member in 1874 and was briefly Professor of Sculpure at the Royal Academy (1877-9).

Elkington & Co. was one of the leading British silver manufacturers of the 19th century. The firm was probably established before 1836 as G.R. Elkington & Co. in Birmingham. It was known by various names, particularly Elkington & Co., until 1963. By the 1860s it employed over 1,000 people. Elkington's created grand presentation pieces for international exhibitions as well as mass-produced dinner services, dressing cases, tea wares and flatware. Between 1836 and 1840 Elkington's patented processes such as electrogilding and electroplating, which used electricity to coat cheaper metals with silver or gold. Imitation 'silver' products were thus made available to a much wider section of the population. Elkington's also used this technology to manufacture electrotype copies of famous art objects, such as the 16th-century cup and cover on display in the Bromley-by-Bow Room of the British Galleries.