Bath, Art and Architecture: The Harpur Monument Busts at Calke, Some Monuments by Henry Cheere.

Thursday, 20 May 2021

The Harpur Monument Busts at Calke, Some Monuments by Henry Cheere.

This post has now been updated and enlarged with more information and better photographs see my post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-cheere-monument-in-ely-cathedral.html

This post was intended to act as an aide memoire - I have since visited Egloshayle, Cornwall and photographed the very fine Molesworth monument, and Ely Cathedral to photograph the Butts monument of c. 1748.

Sir John and Lady Catherine Harpur.

St Giles Church, Calke, Derbyshire.

By Sir Henry Cheere (1703-1781).

c. 1741 - 46.

The monument cost £200.

With the distinctive use of coloured marble favoured by Cheere.

The curved brackets are another frequent Cheere motif.

I suspect that the busts were subcontracted - perhaps to Roubiliac.

This church is the nave of the medieval church that until its first restoration in the 1570s had a chancel, tower and spire. It was rebuilt in 1827-29 by Sir George Crewe who restored the church adding new windows, building a tower and casing the entire exterior in stone.

St Giles was the parish church of Calke from 1160 until 1834. It is now a private manorial chapel, owned by the National Trust. It sits inside the park of Calke Abbey.

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Monument to Bishop Robert Butts.

Ely Cathedral.

1748.

Henry Cheere.