Region ID

Work ID

Manual Reference

Type

Title

Sculptor

Date of design

Year of unveiling

Unveiling details

Road

Precise Location

A to Z Ref

OS Ref

Postcode

Work is

Listing Status

Duty of Care

Commissioned by

Notes

Nude man with bow aimed at sky. Dead lamb at his feet. Bow is missing, broken off, leaving only a small piece grasped in archer's left hand. Both feet placed standing on rock, right foot flat, left on tiptoe.

Was triumph of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Was erected, without the cast iron canopy, in April 1927, to replace 'St George's Fountain' at the entrance to Bethnal Green Museum and removed in the spring of 1951. It was replaced in January 1961. 'In 1951 Montague Weekley, Curator, removed it to the rear of the museum. Its place was taken by a flagstaff. Mr Weekley wrote to the late Stanley Smith, Borough librarian of Bethnal Green: "Apart from other considerations, the figure can hardly be regarded as one suitable for placing in the museum grounds for the action it represents is unintelligible. Nobody can be expected to discern that the action consists in avenging with a non-existent arrow from a non-existent bow the death of a lamb whose corpse reposes at the feet of the figure." Ten years later Mr Weekley relented and in January 1961, the Eagle Slayer, cleaned and with a new plinth, was restored to the forecourt.'(2)

circa

raw year

Condition

At risk

Inscriptions

Signatures

Nude man

Bronze

240cm high x 120cm approx at widest point x 60cm approx deep

Plinth

White stone

47cm high

Corrosion, Deterioration

Surface spalling, crumbling

Surface flaking

Broken, missing parts

Bow was of wood, one half has been broken off. Rear piece of lamb missing