Lantern depicting the British coat of arms

Although ship lanterns were the earliest and for many years the most common lantern form, a very different type, incorporating animal and human puppet figures (known as 'effigies'), became increasingly popular from the 1950s onwards. Sierra Leone was part of the British Empire until it achieved its independence in 1961. A year earlier the Sierra Leone Daily Mail reported that a club had built a lantern depicting the British coat of arms, an image that was repeated several times in the 1960s which is probably when this photograph was taken.

In this photograph the centre piece of the lantern represents the shield topped by a crown and supported by a crowned lion and a unicorn (whose positions have actually been reversed). It is just possible to detect that the lantern is positioned in front of the Clock Tower in Freetown which, up until the late 1960s, was the judging point for all the participating lanterns.