As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the crepidoma or ziggurat employed by Sharples as an architectural setting on which to place workmen, portraits, gods and goddesses was widely copied. In this chapter further architectural and sculptural forms employed in emblem design are examined, together with the artistic traditions and social factors that influenced these choices.

In 1861, the Operative Bricklayers' Society commissioned a new emblem (Plate 46) used for both certificate and banner, from Arthur John Waudby. The basis of Waudby's design is part crepidoma or ziggurat, part Roman triumphal arch. As with the crepidoma or ziggurat that supported a shrine, the triumphal arch also had its origins in temple architecture. It was originally a monument to celebrate a great victory, often decorated with bas-reliefs depicting incidents of the campaign or conquest, which might perhaps be why it features in many trade union emblems as the unions probably felt that they themselves had won a victory when the Combination Acts (which, together with other laws, could send union members to jail for two years or transported for seven years) were repealed in 1824, and men were somewhat freer under the law to meet together and to form associations. If not this, then certainly it signals victory in more general terms. It signified a triumphal entrance, and so it was used on certificates to mark a man's entry into the union.