Denise Dutton, our wonderful sculptor, has offered to make a very limited edition of duplicate bronze maquettes available to major donors who give £6,000 or more to the
Appeal. She has generously offered to do this at cost, so apart from foundry and delivery charges, all profits will go to the Appeal. This is an amazing offer from Denise who is internationally known and in great demand. She is currently working on the statue of Mary Anning which will be unveiled in Lyme Regis.
The design shows Mary on the last two days of her life, after she has been released from prison. She holds a last few copies of Votes for Women the suffragette newspaper she sold regularly in Brighton and elsewhere. The edition she holds depicts the events of Black Friday, the violence of which (followed by her subsequent imprisonment and forcible feeding) almost certainly led to her death by brain haemorrhage. She wears her
suffragette banner and her hunger striker’s medal. Her dress depicts the flowers she loved and also the prison arrows worn in Holloway prison. Stepping across the tubing, funnels and other paraphernalia of forcible feeding, which are embedded in the plinth, she gestures towards the lamp she has laid down at her feet for others to take up. Her words “I am glad to pay the price for freedom” are etched on the plinth as are the words of her sister Emmeline Pankhurst “she is the first to die. How many must follow…”. So too is Emmeline Pethick Lawrence’s statement that Mary was “the first martyr to go to death for this Cause” and Isabella McKeown’s instruction to those at Mary’s memorial service in the Royal Pavilion to “Take the torch from her and light the darkness..”.
Anyone who wishes to take up Denise’s marvellous offer should contact jeancalder.mcsa@gmail.com.