Mace

The Mace is the traditional symbol of authority for South Carolina’s House of Representatives. Since the mid-eighteenth century the Mace has occupied a place of honor during sessions of successive legislative assemblies at the State House in Columbia. Just before each daily session the Sergeant at Arms, or his assistant, dressed in a black suit and tie and wearing white gloves, removes the great golden ceremonial Mace from its glass-front vault near the Speaker’s chair and places it in a special rack at the front of the podium. 

 

The London goldsmith Magdalen Feline made the Mace in 1756. At approximately 48 inches in length, weighing about 10 ľ lbs., made from silver with gold burnishing. The “Commons House of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina” for 90 guineas purchased it. The South Carolina Mace was made similar to the Maundy Mace. The South Carolina Mace is scepter-like in appearance, topped by a symbolic royal diadem modeled on the Crown of St. Edward. On the circlet of the crown are four fleurs-de-lis alternating with four crosses. The crosses support two arches, and where they intersect is a cross-topped globe. The crown is adorned with representations of jewels, although the Mace contains no actual gems.

 

Below and around the crown are four circular decorative panels. These are two pairs of emblems. The first and third panels depict the front and back of King George II’s great seal deputed forSouth Carolina. On front of panel 1 stands the King in coronation robes, with crown, orb, and scepter, receiving a curtsy from a woman.  She is barefoot and wears a loose gown. Upon her head sits a symbolic crown in the form of the turreted walls of a town. The lady’s left breast is bare.  On a ribbon beneath is the province’s motto, taken from Virgil’s Aeneid:  PROPIUS RES ADSPICE NOSTRAS- Look more closely upon our affairs.

 

The back of panel 2 has the royal arms of King George II.  A lion and a unicorn support the great shield crowded with heraldic charges.

 

There are arranged in four grand quarters:

 

·        Upper left- with three lions, and a single lion

 

·        Upper right- with three fleurs-de-lis

 

·        Lower left- a harp

 

·        Lower right- a pair of lions, a lion field strewn with hearts, a galloping horse, a tiny shield with a picture of a Crown

 

The great shield is encircled by the Order of the Garter. Above is the royal crest, a crown on which stands a crowned lion. On a ribbon below runs the royal motto- DIEU ET MON DROIT- God and my right.

 

Panel 3 shows a farmer at his plow, a house and church steeple are visible in the distance, while a graceful tree completes the design.

 

Panel 4 has a woman sitting on a wharf before a crenellated tower, surrounded by bales, chests and an anchor. In her right hand she holds a full-rigged ship. In her left hand a coin purse or a jar. On the shore beyond are a church and the buildings of a town. On the flat circular top place of the mace-head directly beneath the crown is embossed another picture of the Royal Arms.

 

Below the mace-head are four brackets, composed of wood sprites, fantastic masks and floral curlicues. The shaft is incised with a swirling pattern and provided with three nodes and has a large finial decoration at the bottom.  The Mace is spectacular piece of jewelry. In the eighteenth century it was carried in processions, sometimes through the streets of Charlestown, and was placed in front of the Speaker during sessions of the Assembly.