"When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book."
What I took down was not a book but my trusty bellows, and with smart wrist work I soon had the logs blazing merrily, the earth warming by a degree or two, and the greenies sticking pins in a wax model of a Patearoa writer.
I love open fires and most of the houses I’ve lived in (being old and cheap) have provided one. So, one day over 30 years ago as I meandered along George St near Knox Church my heart skipped a beat when I saw in the window of the St Vincent de Paul shop a set of bellows. They bore the university coat of arms.
(As a student I had a T-shirt with that very same design but no longer wear it since it shrank, I think. Especially around the waist area).
After plunging in and thrusting money over the counter, I had my new treasure.
Who could have produced such a work of art? I found a likely answer in a news item from 1933.
Pupils of Mabel Prentice had presented a display of art work at the Presbyterian Hall in Mosgiel. Among the items were beaten-brass work on fire screens, log boxes and kerbs. One fire screen had the university motto "Sapere Aude" inscribed upon it. Surely, my bellows are part of that collection?
The coat of arms her students reproduced on their fireside equipment was the seal designed by Robert Whitworth in 1871, two years after the university opened. "Simple, chaste, and expressive" was the opinion of the Otago Daily Times, no doubt delighted that the design was the work of one of the newspaper’s journalists. Whitworth also wrote witty pieces for the Otago Witness as "The Literary Bohemian", and his pamphlet outlining the possibilities of a settlement at Martin’s Bay on the west coast of Otago earned him £50 ($8500 today) from the Otago Provincial Council. Later, in Australia, he became a successful writer.
Of course, the phrase "Sapere Aude" is special. It means "Dare to know" or "Dare to be wise" and occurs in the First Book of Letters by Roman poet Horace, which appeared in 20BC, so it’s been around a while and is much discussed by philosophers.
My bellows are a bit knocked about but it seems that the book which appeared in the very centre of Otago University’s seal was not worked in any detail by the artist of 1933.
But, all in all, it’s a pretty impressive representation of what the university is all about, so I was surprised to hear that the coat of arms is to be given a bit of a sideways shunt to just formal occasions in preference to a new design put together at some expense as part of something called "Vision 2040", which has so far cost the cash-strapped university $670,000. The new logo bit has a bill of about $120,000. It all seems a bit much. After all, a logo is really needed only by those who need to promote a hamburger joint or flog a new brand of toilet cleaner.
Does a university actually need to spend big money on such an exercise? Oxford University, an English establishment which I understand has been quite well known since 1096, makes do with a seal/logo that’s not too different from the one on my bellows.
I’m pretty reasonable and believe there’s really nothing much wrong with logos which couldn’t be improved by having far fewer of them, especially when universities are involved.
New ones run the danger of tossing tradition aside.
"And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Tradition fled
and paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."
■Jim Sullivan is a Patearoa writer.
