Queen Victoria

Multiple statues of Queen Victoria were erected in Britain and its empire (especially India) around her golden and diamond jubilees. Brighton's was commissioned by the town's mayor, Sir John George Blaker. It was designed by the Italian sculptor Carlo Nicoli and built by the Sculptured Marble Company of London (a subsidiary of the Statuary and Granite Company), which offered several stock designs for statues of Victoria. Blaker announced the gift of the statue on the date of Victoria's diamond jubilee, 22 June 1897, and his daughter unveiled it on 8 December. The park in which it is situated was known as North Steine Gardens and open only to subscribers but was opened to the public to mark…

The statue is executed in Carrara marble. It is a copy of one that stood in Amritsar, India, which Nicoli produce in 1888. Victoria is depicted true to life, in an aged state, at a state Opening of Parliament. She is wearing the sash of the Order of the Garter and a veil beneath her crown, and is holding an unrolled scroll in her left hand. The scroll is a reference to Victoria's assumption of direct rule over India. The statue is 2.5 m high and stands on a plinth of the same height, then a base of three octagonal steps. The base is decorated with a sculpted braid along the top plinth and scrolls at the corners. Victoria is depicted life-like in her elderly state and is not idealised. She…