William Caxton - Bank Street, Maidstone, UK
N 51° 16.400 E 000° 31.338
31U E 327175 N 5683137
This statue of William Caxton (1422-1492) is one of four statues on the Bank Street facade of the post office. The statues are of people who have been involved with Maidstone and Kent.
Waymark Code: WMRD73
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/12/2016
Views: 1
The statue, that is at first floor level, is the second from the right. From street level it is difficult to determine from what the statue is made but it is probably stone or may be plaster. The statue shows William Caxton wearing robes and headgear. His right hand is resting on a printing press and his left hand is holding the left lapel of his robes At the base of the statue is the wording "Caxton".
The BBC History website has an article about William Caxton that advises:
Caxton was the first English printer and a translator and importer of books into England.
Caxton was born in around 1422 in Kent. He went to London at the age of 16 to become an apprentice to a merchant, later moving to Bruges, the centre of the wool trade, where he became a successful and important member of the merchant community. From 1462 to 1470 he served as governor of the 'English Nation of Merchant Adventurers', which allowed him to represent his fellow merchants, as well as act as a diplomat for the king.
Caxton affiliated himself with the household of Margaret, the duchess of Burgundy, sister of the English king Edward IV. She became one of his most important patrons and encouraged him with his translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' from French to English. In the early 1470s Caxton spent time in Cologne learning the art of printing. He returned to Bruges in 1472 where he and Colard Mansion, a Flemish calligrapher, set up a press. Caxton's own translation of 'The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye' was the first book printed in the English language.
In 1476 Caxton returned to London and established a press at Westminster, the first printing press in England. Amongst the books he printed were Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales', Gower's 'Confession Amantis' and Malory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur'. He printed more than 100 books in his lifetime, books which were known for their craftsmanship and careful editing. He was also the translator of many of the books he published, using his knowledge of French, Latin and Dutch. He died in 1492.
The building, that is now a post office, is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:
Formerly insurance office, now building society offices. Built in 1913 as the district office of Prudential Assurance Comnpany, possibly by Paul Waterhouse who carried out many commissions for this company. Tudor style. Upper floors timberframed with plaster infill, ground floor of Portland stone. Plaintiled roof with brick chimneystack. Two storeys and attics; two windows. Upper floors have close-studding with plastered infill. Two projecting gables with decorated carved bargeboards and elaborate carved bressumer. Each gable has two paired arched windows with leaded lights with lozenge pattern below. First floor has two oriel windows with three mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights and carved bases. Decorative central rainwaterhead with quatrefoil motif. Four ogee-shaped stone niches with statues of Kentish worthies under four-centred wooden arches with blank shields and foliate moulding to spandrels. These are (right to left) Archbishop Courtenay, Caxton, ?Sir Christopher Marlowe and Lord Avebury. Ground floor has stone shopfront with carved stone bosses, pilasters, two oak framed windows and two doorcases with rectangular fanlights and arched doorcases. Right side plank doorcase has studded door.
INTERIOR: Ground floor has square ribbed ceiling with plastered vine motifs. Right side staircase has moulded balusters and newel post with panelling below.
Included as a good and complete example of an insurance office in this unusual arts and crafts style.