One of the most intriguing features of trade union emblems is the way in which the working classes themselves, together with their places of work, chose to be represented. In this chapter, the depiction of the working man in high art by professional artists is examined, together with The Forge, an oil painting by the blacksmith artist James Sharples, in which he represents the world of work with which he himself was so familiar. The processes of commissioning an emblem depicting union members and their workplaces are also examined in a case study from the 1870s of the United Society of Boiler Makers and Iron Ship Builders – the executive decisions, the instructions given to the artist and the reception of the new emblem by the members.

Industrial scenes and themes first had appeared in fine art during the Reformation in genre painting. Artists such as Holbein and Hans Hesse portrayed manual labourers such as miners as dignified and self-sufficient. Later, these themes gave way to depictions of the lives of rich merchants and, whilst there was still a hierarchy in the representation of workers, the lower classes frequently became relegated to tavern scenes.

However, attitudes to the representation of labour in high art changed quite rapidly in Britain with the advent of the new industrial society, and it is necessary to consider these changes and how they might impinge on the way in which the working class came to view itself when forming its own distinct imagery.