Mid-18th Century Life Size Plaster
bust of a Pugilist?
Perhaps Jack Broughton (1703 – 89) - The
Father of English Boxing.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2021/02/bust-of-moor-by-francis-harwood.html
Wednesday, 25 February 2026
An Anonymous 18th Century Plaster bust suggested here as the Pugilist Jack Broughton.
Monday, 23 February 2026
An Engraving of a Bust of Isaac Newton
From Benjamin Martin's General Magazine of 1755.
Benjamin Martin (1705 - 81).
Truly a Man of the Enlightenment.
Benjamin Martin, was an English science teacher, instrument maker, and popular science author, he died on Feb 9, 1782, at the age of 75-77.
Son of John Martin he
was raised on a farmat Broadstreet, Worplesden, Surrey and apparently had little access to formal
schooling, but he read voraciously, and by the time he was in his mid-twenties,
he had started a school in Sussex, and he was soon writing textbooks of a sort
for use in his and other similar kinds of schools.
In 1729 he married Mary Lover of Chichester, and at the time
of his marriage was described as a merchant of Guildford. The couple had two
children, a daughter, Maria, and a son, Joshua Lover Martin, who joined his
father in the 1770’s to form the firm of B. Martin and Son.
Martin was tradeing at South St., Chichester, Sussex (1736-40).
In 1742, he moved to Reading, on the Thames near London, and there he published two substantial quartos. Micrographia nova (1742), about two new microscopes he had invented, one a pocket reflecting microscope.
The other was A Course of
Lectures in Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1743).
He published Benjamin Martin's General Magazine of Arts and Sciences from1755 until 1764.
Benjamin Martin ended up with a large workshop in Fleet Street which produced instruments under his name; made improvements to the microscope and wrote extensively in the field of natural philosophy.
Hadley Quadrant & Visual Glasses, Two doors from Crane Court, Fleet St. (1756-9), resident in Fleet St. (1756-82),
He was Four doors East of Crane Court (1760),
The New Invented Visual Glasses, Fleet St. (1761) & 171 Fleet St. (1767-77), London.
A very close neighbour to Martin in Fleet Street was Benjamin Rackstrow on the Corner of Crane Court on the North side of Fleet St. see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/02/john-cheere-hoskins-hoskings-and-oliver.html
and very close to the building of the Royal Society in Crane Court.
The Young Gentleman and Lady’s Philosophy (second edition, London: 1772).
The essay is written in the form of conversations between Cleonicus, home from College for the summer, and his sister, Euphrosyne, whose lively interest in the natural sciences (“philosophy”) is impeded by her lack of access to instruction on the topic.
She has formed the plan of getting her brother to help her, and in a series of dialogues, Cleonicus introduces her to astronomy and physics, using sketches, models, and experiments. Although she frequently suggests that a new subject may be too difficult for her, her intelligence and his organized and factual instruction consistently produce firmly rooted understanding on which she builds.
This work is a rare publication in England in the 18th Century that speaks out for women’s
education, arguing that if they were given the opportunity to study the
sciences, they could excel.
Cleonicus and Euphrosyne.
With the bust of Newton over the door.
The drawing by Sam.Wale and engraved by Grignion.
He was very successful in his day but since his teaching drove his book sales, that source of income ran low.
By the early 1780s, he was bankrupt. In 1782, he was dead, possibly the result of a botched suicide.
He left no money, but he had an extensive collection of instruments, which generated a thousand pounds at the bankruptcy auction.
Friday, 20 February 2026
John Cheere apprentices - James Hoskins (Hoskings) and Samuel Euclid Oliver, and Benjamin Grant - Some notes -
This post came about with researches into the business relationship of Benjamin Rackstrow and his later partner the midwife Catherine Clarke at Fleet Street.
Rackstrow left his entire estate to the enterprising Catherine Clarke
Catherine Clarke's premises were next door at 195 Fleet St.
Googling came up with this rather unedifying publication.
It is difficult to see who this publication was aimed at - it is salacious and rather repetive but had it not been published the relationships of the Hoskins family Samual Euclid Oliver, Catherine Clarke and Benjamin Rackstrow might not have been exposed.
.....................
Samuel Euclid Oliver in Trouble.
Samuel Euclid Oliver was the son of Richard Oliver, Mathematician of Greenwich, Kent and was apprenticed to Benjamin Rackstow from 25 March 1760 for 7 years.
The two stone globes, six feet in diameter and weighing
seven tons each, were designed by Richard Oliver, formerly mathematics master
at Weston's Academy at Greenwich, who was paid 50 guineas for this in 1754.
Oliver was married in the Church at Greenwich.
Trials for Adultery ..... pub. 1779.
It is difficult to see who this publication was aimed at - it is salacious and rather repetive but had it not been published the relationships of the Hoskins family Samual Euclid Oliver, Catherine Clarke and Benjamin Rackstrow might never have been exposed.
So far this is the only depiction that I can discover of an English 18th Century Plaster Caster. I suspect that it is not a very good likeness!
Drawn by Daniel Dodd (d.1780). and engraved by Wale.
Not to be confused with William Dodd the "Macaroni Parson" who was convicted of forgery on 22 February 1777 and hanged on 27 June.
Oliver was married to Sarah Hoskins, who Catherine Clarke had
known for around three years - she had known Oliver she said, for around ten
years, he having been an apprentice (probably aged about 14) to an acquaintance of hers named Mr
Rackstrow. Catherine had often visited the Olivers’ home, and believed the
couple acted ‘lovingly’ when she was there.
The couple were married on 29 December 1768 in East Greenwich
and court records state they had three children: Charles James, Elizabeth and
James - all three had died by the time of the trial.
The births of the three children may have been what
Catherine referred to when she stated that she had seen Sarah and Samuel
together at their home and it is possible that Mrs Clarke was present on at
least one of the births.
In the summer of 1773 Oliver visited Catherine Clarkes Fleet
Street premises and asked her for some pills for ‘a young woman in the country,
who was not regular’. Clarke asked if she was ‘slender or robust and if with
child.’ Oliver replied that he did not know if she was pregnant, but if she
was, she was in the early stages of pregnancy. Accepting the pills, he asked if there was a chance that
the pills might end a pregnancy. Clarke replied that no, she had nothing - and
knew of nothing - that would.
The pills were for Elizabeth Hoskings, Sarah’s younger
sister. Samuel had been having a secret affair with his sister-in-law, after
visiting Sarah’s parents’ home in the winter of 1772.
A fourteen-year-old
apprentice in the Hoskings’ household, Elizabeth Tinman, testified she had
often seen Samuel kiss Elizabeth and take ‘other indecent liberties with her’
showing that they did not hide their affair in front of servants.
In early 1773 she went to Elizabeth’s bedroom to put on her
cap and saw the couple in a compromising position half-undressed on a bench. On
seeing the wide-eyed young apprentice at the door, Samuel was said to have ‘ran
into a corner and held up his breeches’, while Elizabeth appeared in ‘a great
fright’.
Olivers sister-in-law also gave testimony to
the court. Their relationship, she said, had lasted more than two years. In
August of 1773 she approached him suspecting she was pregnant, feeling sick and
generally ill. Oliver told her that the affair ‘must not come to light’ and
gave Clarkes pills, along with a letter with instructions on how to take them,
which he told her to burn after reading.
At first, she refused to take the pills but after more
anxious threats and another letter in which Oliverwrote ‘in the midst of my
trouble don’t you afflict me’, she swallowed them.
As Clarke predicted, they did not affect the pregnancy.
Elizabeth then revealed everything to her mother Elizabeth,
who told Sarah and Elizabeth’s father, James.
His wife left the home she shared with Oliver and moved into her parents’ house, and issued proceedings to end the marriage.
On hearing that he was to be divorced, Samuel turned up at the house and reportedly struck his father-in-law during an argument.
Despite being led away by the Constable he returned again the following evening, threatening to murder the entire Hoskings family.
He was detained, and the judges ruled that Sarah and Samuel were to be
divorced.
.................................
James Hoskins (d.1791) was apprenticed to the sculptor John Cheere (1709-87) in 1747.
By 1770 Hoskins whose premises were in the Churchyard of St Martin's in the Fields had set up in business with Samuel Euclid Oliver, a neighbour on St Martin’s Lane.
Their stock-in-trade was plaster casts, many of which were copies or casts of antique originals.
In 1773 they were rated on property at £20 and £22 respectively.
That year Hoskins took a lease from the church authorities on a larger property ‘standing and being on the west side of St Martin’s Lane, aforesaid being the corner house of a passage leading to the new churchyard’ (Westminster Archive Poor Rates, quoted in Sullivan 2020 (1), n.17). His new rate was £35 We lose sight of Oliver after his divorce!
Sometime after 1773 Hoskins entered into a partnership with Benjamin Grant another of John Cheere's apprentices in St Martin’s Lane.
In his capacity as ‘moulder and caster in plaster’ to the Royal Academy, Hoskins supplied plaster casts throughout the 1770s and 1780s.
He also supplied Wedgwood with reliefs, busts and moulds, many of which were reproduced in black ‘basalt’ stoneware.
Among
Hoskins’s clients was Sir Joshua Reynolds, who commissioned a ‘plaister bust of
Dr Johnson moulded after his death’, an object that still survives today.
Roques Map showing the entrance to the Churchyard from St Martin's Lane.
....................
James Hoskins, Samuel Euclid Oliver and Benjamin Grant.
Hoskins was apprenticed to John Cheere in 1747. He seems to
have progressed in his employment quickly a note in the London Evening
Post of December 1751 concerning the successful treatment of William Collins’s
leg ulcer with ‘Iron Pear Tree Water’ described Hoskins, a witness to the
recovery, as ‘Foreman to Mr Cheere’ (Friedman and Clifford 1974, appendix C).
Presumably the sculptor William Collins - William Collins (1721-93) was an apprenticel of the sculptor Henry Cheere (1702-1781). He specialised in religious and mythological scenes. He was among the group that founded the Society of Artists in 1759, and used their exhibitions to showcase his bas-reliefs. After leaving Cheere’s workshop in c.1760, Collins pursued an independent practice as a sculptor.
By 1770 Hoskins had set up in business with Samuel Euclid Oliver, and together they supplied works for Mersham Hatch and a good many reliefs, busts and other works for Wedgwood Hoskins also held the post of ‘moulder and caster in plaster’ to the Royal Academy from its foundation.
Wedgwood had moulds made directly from the Lansdown bas-reliefs by Hoskins and Oliver in 1770. In 1771 they were in production in black basalt and at Bentley’s suggestion later that year other colours were made of which ones like ours in ‘black with the encaustic red ground’ were the most sought after.
Wedgwood’s fourteen Herculaneum Pictures were moulded from a group of plaster bas-reliefs brought to England by William Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805), thirteen of which were inspired by frescoes from Pompeii and Herculaneum. The frescoes that provide the source for the subjects of Polyphemus and Cupid and Marsyas and the young Olympus, depicted on the present pair of plaques, are now preserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples .
Lord Lansdowne, an enthusiastic and esteemed patron of Wedgwood, allowed moulds to be made of his bas-reliefs for reproduction at the Wedgwood Etruria factory.
Hoskins and Oliver, supplied Wedgwood with a Bacchus in 1770, but it is not clear whether it was for this figure or the Bacchus after Michelangelo. Both were listed in the Wedgwood & Bentley Catalogue published in 1773.
In July 1773 Hoskins provided two casts of lions for the Royal Academy. A group of academicians, including Agostino Carlini, George Moser and Benjamin West went to Slaughters coffee-house in St Martins Laneto inspect the casts, which they found acceptable.
It appears that the moulds were executed by Hoskins &
Oliver in 1770 ; certainly they were in production in black basalt by the
following year as Josiah wrote to Bentley early in 1771 that ‘he was finishing
some frames for the Herculaneum, & other Bas reliefs’. The series are
subsequently listed in the Wedgwood & Bentley Catalogues of 1773-79 and
1787, nos. 51-65, described as ‘Figures from paintings in the ruins of
Herculaneum; the models brought over by the marquis of Lansdown’, with
Polyphemus and Cupid on a dolphin recorded in the Catalogue as no. 60 and
Marsyas and Young Olympus as no. 61.
Hoskins and Oliver modelled a bust of Prior for Wedgwood c.1773 (R. Reilly, Wedgwood, 1989, I, p 458, pl.655
An invoice in the Wedgwood archives exists for a large number of moulds, dated 16 January 1773, which came to 11s 6d.
An invoice in the Wedgwood archives for a large number of moulds, dated 16 January 1773, came to 11s 6d. Another invoice of March 21, 1774, from Hoskins and Grant, was for ‘plaister casts prepaird to mould’ which included busts of Zeno, Pindar, Faustina, Inigo Jones and Palladio, at what appears to be a standard price of a guinea a bust, and moulds of antique stone. The whole bill came to £29 13s 2d.
By 1774 Hoskins had entered into partnership with Benjamin Grant, another of John Cheere’s former apprentices. Together they supplied Wedgwood with more items.
Another invoice of March 21, 1774, from
Hoskins and Grant, was for ‘plaister casts prepaird to mould’ which included
busts of Zeno, Pindar, Faustina, Inigo Jones and Palladio, at what appears to
be a standard price of a guinea a bust, and moulds of antique stone. The whole
bill came to £29 13s 2d.
Another Hoskins and Grant invoice of January 1775 notes the
supply of many more busts, including a Galen and Hippocrates, and British
worthies such as Ben Jonson, ‘Sir W Reigle’, Fletcher and Beaumont, Harvey and
Newton. This bill came to £23 17s 4d, and was signed ‘for self and partner Benj
Grant’.
In 1779 they were paid £26 6s 6d for items including figures
of Zingara and Chrispagnia at £2 2s (Meteyard 1866, 1, 324-5). Hoskins was
still active in 1790, when he provided small works for Lord Delaval (12).
Literary References: Meteyard 1866, 1, 324-5; Gunnis 1968,
211; Pyke 1973, 70; Friedman and Clifford 1974, appendix H; Clifford 1992, 58
Archival References: RA Council Minutes, 1, ff160-1 June
1773; Wedgwood/Hoskins
By 1774 Hoskins had entered into partnership with Benjamin Grant, another of John Cheere’s apprentices.
Another Hoskins and Grant invoice of January 1775 notes the
supply of many more busts, including a Galen and Hippocrates, and British
worthies such as Ben Jonson, ‘Sir W Reigle’, Fletcher and Beaumont, Harvey and
Newton. This bill came to £23 17s 4d, and was signed ‘for self and partner Benj
Grant’.
In 1779 they were paid £26 6s 6d for items including figures
of Zingara and Chrispagnia at £2 2s (Meteyard 1866, 1, 324-5). Hoskins was
still active in 1790, when he provided small works for Lord Delaval (12).
Literary References: Meteyard 1866, 1, 324-5; Gunnis 1968,
211; Pyke 1973, 70; Friedman and Clifford 1974, appendix H; Clifford 1992, 58
Archival References: RA Council Minutes, 1, ff160-1 June
1773; Wedgwood/Hoskins
View of St Martin in the Fields Church Yard - 1828 - by George Scharf .
The premises of Hoskins were in the Churchyard before moving over the road to the West side of St Martin's Lane.
British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1862-0614-108
...................................
Adam commissions: In the early 1770s, Adam commissioned Hoskins to produce two plaster figures – Apollo and Mercury – for Sir Edward Knatchbull at Mersham-le-Hatch in Kent.
He paid £24 6s for the pair, but took
some persuading from Adam. Knatchbull expressed concern that the nude Apollo
figure might lack decorum: ‘I must send for a taylor to cloath him for as we
sometimes have chaste and delicate eyes … nakedness might possibly give
offence’.
Kenwood House and Messrs Hoskins and Oliver.
The antechamber outside the library at Kenwood originally contained three plaster sculptures in the three niches. The sculptures were made for Lord Mansfield by James Hoskins (d. 1791) and Samuel Oliver (fl. 1769-74).
They had set up business together running a plaster shop between c.1770, until 1774.
Hoskin had been apprenticed to John Cheere (1709-87) in 1747 and held the post of 'moulder and caster in plaster' to the Royal Academy.18
Their original invoice of 25 November 1771 states -
To three Large Antyke Figures Vizt Flora Teis [Thetis] and a
Muse -£50. 8. 0.
To selves and Assistants going with them to Kenwood £1. 1. 0.
Total £51. 9. 0.
..........................
William Wynn.
The trade card in Banks Collection
(Banks,106.33) which advertises "William Wynn Statuary... Late Apprentice to Mr.
Rackstrow. Takes off Gentlemen & Ladies Faces from the Life, with the
greatest ease & safety & forms them into Busts, to an exact Likeness.
Likewise makes all sorts of Figures, Busts, Vases, &c. for Halls, Stair
Cases, Dining Rooms, &c. in Plaister [sic] of Paris, to represent either
Marble, Stone, or Bronzes &c. Likewise Mends, Gilds, Paints & Bronzes
Old figures &c. N.B. Leaden figures, Vases &c. for Gardens made &
mended."
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Banks-106-33
................................
Benjamin Rackstrow, ‘The Crown and Looking-Glass’, the
lower end of the paved stones, St Martin’s Lane, London ?1720s-1737?, ‘Sir
Isaac Newton’s Head’, the corner of Crane Court in Fleet St 1738-1748 or later,
197 Fleet St by 1768-1772. Cabinet maker, sculptor, picture framemaker, figure
caster etc.
Benjamin Rackstrow (d.1772) led a varied career, from picture frame making to sculpture and to opening a museum of waxwork figures. He is presumably the Benjamin Rackstrow who married Hannah Bonruc or Bourne at St Luke Old Street, in 1733, and who had a son William by Sarah (his second wife?) in 1737, baptised at St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet St, and three further children between 1740 and 1744.
He was made free of the Joiners’ Company in
July 1737 (information from Robert B. Barker, quoting Guildhall Library MS
8051/4, f.56 verso), probably to meet requirements for working within the
bounds of the City at his new premises in (159) Fleet St.
Rackstrow issued his first trade card, perhaps in the 1720s, from St Martin’s Lane, advertising ‘all sorts of Cabinet Work, Looking-Glasses, Coach-glasses, Window Blinds, Picture-frames &c. after the newest fashion and at the most Reasonable Rates. He likewise cleans and repairs all sorts of Cabinet work, Exchanges New Glasses for Old ones and makes Old ones fashionable, NB. He also cleans Pictures in the best manner and takes off Busto’s, Basso Reliev’s, and Figures of any Size in Wax, Metal, or Plaister of Paris’ (repr. Heal 1972 p.153).
He issued a further impressive trade card,
dated 1738 and engraved by Henry Copland, from the corner of Crane Court in
Fleet St, calling himself a cabinet and picture framemaker, and advertising a
very similar range of services to before, also offering to hang bells after the
new manner (repr. Heal 1972 p.154). In a publication of 1748 he described
himself as a ‘figure maker and statuary’ (Miscellaneous observations, together
with a collection of experiments on electricity).
As a picture framemaker, we know very little of his activity. As a sculptor we know a little more, including the supply of a figure of the piping Faunus to Lady Luxborough in 1742, ‘three bustos and a group’ in 1748 for Arbury in Warwickshire, a statue of George II for Weaver’s Hall, Dublin, in 1749-
more likely to have been by John van Nost III , and two busts in 1752 and a figure of Edward VI to the Ironmongers’ Company (Gunnis 1968 p.314; Roscoe 2009).
From a court case in 1759, we learn that Rackstrow stocked a little figure of Shakespeare, about 12 ins high, which he sold for about 12s (Proceedings of the Old Bailey).
He exhibited a coloured plaster figure and busts at the Free Society of Artists in 1763.
His former apprentice, William Wynn, statuary, advertised from
Shakespeare’s Head, Henrietta St, Covent Garden, in 1758 (Public Advertiser 31
May 1758; see also trade card, Banks coll., 106.33).
In later life, Rackstrow was known for his museum of waxwork
figures and other curiosities which he maintained on his premises in Fleet St;
these exhibits included life-size anatomical models (see Richard Altick, The
Shows of London, 1978, pp.55-6; see also Matthew Craske, ‘ “Unwholesome” and
“pornographic”: a reassessment of the place of Rackstrow’s Museum in the story
of 18th-century anatomical collection and exhibition’, Journal of the History
of Collections, vol.23, 2011, pp.75-99).
In his will, made 14 October 1769 and proved 1 June 1772,
Benjamin Rackstrow, of St Dunstan-in-the-West, Temple Bar, left much of his
estate to Catherine Clarke, including his busts, skeletons and moulds. His
moulds, casts, figures and busts, from the antique, were sold shortly
thereafterwards (Daily Advertiser 25 September 1772).
Sources: Information kindly provided by Robert B. Barker,
2011, on Rackstrow’s freedom and posthumous sale, and on William Wynn’s
advertisement.
The British Museum Trade Cards etc of Benjamin Rackstrow.
"Benj: Rackstrow...Makes and Sells all sorts of Cabinet Work, Looking-Glasses, Coach-Glasses, Window-Blinds, Picture-frames &c. after the newest fashion and at the most Reasonable Rates. He likewise cleans and repairs all sorts of Cabinet work, Exchanges New Glasses for Old ones and makes Old ones fashionable. NB. He also cleans Pictures in the best manner and takes off Busto's, Basso Releiv's [sic], and Figures of any Size, in Wax, Metal, or Plaister [sic] of Paris." Heal's annotations on mount: "? c.1730.
Compare photograph of another trade-card in Mr. Cattle's collection with engraved date 1738 : - 'Benjamin Rackstrow, cabinet & picture frame maker at Sir Isaac Newton's Head, the corner of Crane Court, in Fleet St.' " Heal,28.187 and Heal,96.16 advertise "Benjamin Rackstrow Cabinet & Picture-frame-Maker...Makes all sorts of Cabinet Work, Picture Frames, Looking & Coach Glasses, Window Blinds &c. after ye newest fashions & at ye most Reasonable Rates. Exchanges New Glasses for Old. Makes old ones fashionable & Repairs all sorts of Cabinet Work. Cleans and new lines Pictures, takes off Busto's, Basso Relieves and Figures of any Size in Wax, Metal or Plaster of Paris, And hangs Bells after the new manner."
Heal's
annotations on mount of 28.187: "Original in F. Cattle's collection. B.
Rackstrow, statuary, at Sir Isaac Newton's Head in Fleet Street advertised
'That he has found out and completed an Apparatus to exhibit that Grand
Experiment, The Chair of Beautification...' 'Daily Advertiser' 5. May. 1747.
See photograph of another trade-card : - 'Benj: Rackstrow, cabinet maker etc.
at the Crown & Looking Glass the lower end of the Paved Stones in St.
Martin's Lane ?c.1720." Heal's annotations on mount of 96.16:
"Engraved by H.Copland. 1738."
Rackstrow announced in Daily Advertiser, 5 May 1747 that he had ‘found out and completed an Apparatus to exhibit that Grand Experiment the Chair of Beatification…’.
The London Magazine reported the death of Benjamin Rackstrow
on 29 May 1772.
........................
Rackstrows Publications.
Miscellaneous observations, together with a collection of
experiments on electricity. With the manner of performing them. Designed to
explain the nature and cause of the most remarkable phenomena thereof. With
some remarks on a pamphlet, intituled, A sequel to the experiments and
observations tending to illustrate the nature and properties of electricity /
[by Sir W. Watson] To which is annexed, a letter, written by the Author to the
Academy of Sciences at Bordeaux, relative to the similarity of electricity to
lightening and thunder.
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/t7ab3fka/items
...................................
A Descriptive Catalogue ... of Rackstrow's Museum:
consisting of a large, and very valuable collection, of most curious anatomical
figures, and real preparations ... with a great variety of natural and
artificial curiosities. To be seen at no. 197 Fleet-Street ... London / Benjamin Rackstrow. Pub 1782.
No author is given but almost certainly the enterprising midwife Mrs Clarke who had inherited Rackstrows estate.
Further revised editions were published in 1787 and 1794. Both available
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hjm6q586/items?canvas=5
Page 30 and 31.
....................
Ref Crane Court Fleet St. and the Royal Society.
Sir Isaac Newton suggested the move of the Royal Society, and he pushed his plans through, despite significant opposition, and in 1710, they bought (Nicholas Barbon?) built-house at the northern end of Crane Court for their new home. This building was refurbished and an extension added to the instructions of Christopher Wren?
In 1778, botanist Sir Joseph Banks became President of the Royal Society, a position he was to hold for nearly 42 years. One of his first acts as President was to accept an offer from the Government of rooms in the newly rebuilt Somerset House, setting in motion the Society’s removal from Crane Court.
The final meeting of the Royal Society at Crane Court took place there on 23 November
1780, after which the property was sold to the Scottish Corporation.
Wednesday, 18 February 2026
Roubiliac and Chesterfield at the Louvre and some further examples of Roubiliacs Bronzes.
The Bronze Bust of Lord Chesterfield.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Circa 1745.
Height 48.2 cms.
the Louvre, Paris.
Purchased July 2010.
They give the provenance as -
Executed shortly after 1745 and probably taken to Ireland by the sitter.
Presented (?) to the Right Hon. Nathaniel Clements, MP, director of Phoenix Park, Dublin (1705-1777).
His descendants. London, Christie's, 18 April 1991, lot 45.
London, Sotheby's, 15 December 1998, lot 150.
Acquired by the
Louvre at the London, Sotheby's sale of 14 July 2010, lot 132.
The resolution of these images is not great - Louvre please take a lesson from the Rijksmuseum!
...........................
For the Roubiliac bronze bust of Lord Chesterfield at the V & A see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/07/bronze-bust-of-lord-chesterfield.html
Bronze Bust of Philip Dormer Stanhope.
Fourth Earl of Chesterfield.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Purchased from dealer Simon Spero in 1959 for £90.
Photographs here taken by the author.
I suspect that the socle or at least the block behind the bust are replacements - the hexagonal nut on the supporting strap is a giveaway!
Hopefully the first two image here will convey some idea of the subtle chisel and punch work to the finish - particularly with the hair - the work should be compared with that on the bronze bust of Alexander Pope illustrated below.
.........................
For the Roubiliac Bronze of Chesterfield at Dublin Castle see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-dublin-castle-bronze-bust-of-philip.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-dublin-castle-bronze-bust-of-philip.html
............................
For the Roubiliac Bronze of Alexander Pope see -
This essay was an interesting exercise - the bronze bust of Locke was with dealer Jonathan Agnew who was at pains to state that a Roubiliac attribution had been ratified by a former curator at the V and A.
Whilst it is indeed possible that Roubiliac was responsible for the original - I would suggest those illustrated in the blog entry are from the Hyde Park Corner workshop of John Cheere - from my researches it is fairly obvious that Roubiliac had a long and fruitful relationship with both John and Henry Cheere.
For good measure I have also included photographs of the bronze busts of Isaac Newton (Fitzwilliam Museum) and Oliver Cromwell (private collection) by Michael Rysbrack
..........................
For further smaller bronzes by Roubiliac see -
...............................
The Small Bronzes by Roubiliac.
Alexander Pope.
Bronze.
Height 46.5 cms.
attributed to Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Photographs courtesy Sotheby's, Bond Street, London.
see - http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/european-sculpture-works-of-art-l07231/lot.136.html
For the 1740 Marble version of this bust see -
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/4-themilton-fitzwilliam-bust-of.html
see - http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/european-sculpture-works-of-art-l07231/lot.136.html
For the 1740 Marble version of this bust see -
http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/4-themilton-fitzwilliam-bust-of.html
.................
Thursday 13 May, 1762 The second day of the four day
posthumous sale of the contents of the Roubiliac studio at his dwelling house
in St Martin's Lane
By Mr Langford of the Piazza, Covent Garden.
Lot 22; Five Medals of Handell, Sir Isaac Newon, Mr Pope,
Inigo Jones and a laughing boy
Lot 23; Five Medals of Mr Garrick, Handell, Inigo Jones, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton & a laughing boy.
These three were perhaps the same works re-sold in an early
Christie's sale in 1766, when they were described as 'Sir Isaac Newton, Pope
and Handel in bronze finely repaired [i.e. finished] by the late ingenious Mr.
Roubiliac'. The suggestion here is that it was Roubiliac himself who finished
his bronzes.
On the fourth day - under the heading sundries in plaster.
Lot 33; Six medals of Pope, Inigo Jones, Mr Handell, Sir
Isaac Newton, Mr Garrick and O.Cromwell a laughing boy and a clay bracket.
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Relief Portrait of Handel.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Photograph taken by the author under very difficult circumstances.
The lighting is very poor and avoiding the reflections of the glass case was almost impossible.
This relief is currently on long term loan to the V & A.
From the collection of Sir Francis Watson former director of the Wallace Collection, and Surveyer of the Queen's Pictures - it is now in the collection of his stepson Cheng Huan, (V&A Museum, Cheng Huan, Loan 3).
For an amusing obituary of Sir Francis see - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-francis-watson-1555593.html
For an amusing obituary of Sir Francis see - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-francis-watson-1555593.html
for a terracotta see - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O180972/george-frederick-handel-portrait-bust-roubiliac-louis-francois/george-frederick-handel-portrait-bust-roubiliac-louis-fran%C3%A7ois/
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Alexander Pope.
Bronze relief attrib. to Roubiliac - 23.75 x 21.25 inches
(60.3 x 54 cm).
They suggest c. 1755.
J.V.G.Mallet, 'Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac', in Burlington Magazine, vol.104, April 1962, pp.153-58.
W.K.Wimsatt, The Portraits of Alexander Pope, New Haven and
London, 1965, pp.244.
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Alexander Pope.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Bronze Relief.
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Poor photograph above taken by the author under very difficult circumstances.
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David Garrick.
Gilded Bronze relief.
DAVID GARRICK. Arm, / L. F.Roubiliac Sct. ad Vivum / 1758
(verso);
The oval plaque is made of highly polished bronze.
The bust itself is attached to the plaque and is gilded bronze. The gilding, which is matt, may not be original.
Roubiliac was closely involved with Garrick in 1758, in which year he completed the statue of Shakespeare for the Shakespeare temple in Garrick's river-side garden at Hampton (See G0938).
He also produced a terracotta bust of Garrick, seen in Soldi's portrait of Roubiliac in the Garrick Club (G0727). The Soldi is signed and dated 1757/8, and although the terracotta bust is lost there is a plaster cast of it in the National Portrait Gallery (707a).
It is similar in many ways to S0015, although the bronze has a much brighter feel to it with the head lifted, the stoop alleviated, and details such as the buttons added.
The bronze clearly dates slightly later than the terracotta. Roubiliac's posthumous sale, 12-15 May 1762, included a set of plaster medallions depicting Garrick, Pope, Conyers Middleton, Handel, Inigo Jones, Oliver Cromwell, and Isaac Newton.
In addition, the sale included four plaster medallions in
plaster of Garrick and three medallions in wax as well as two terracotta busts,
a plaster bust, and a mould for the bust. Roubiliac's marble bust of Garrick
was sold at Mrs Garrick's sale, Christie's 23 June 1823.
Text above, lifted from the Garrick Club website see -
http://garrick.ssl.co.uk/object-s0015
Kindly supplied by Marcus Risdall, Curator of the Garrick
Club Collection in 2015.
see my blog entry -
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Conyers Middleton.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Bronze Relief.
Poor photographs taken under difficult circumstances.
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Oliver Cromwell.
Possibly after Roubiliac ?
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A short and definitely not exhaustive list of later 17th to mid 18th century larger scale English bronze statuary.
As one can see, a very limited number of these objects were manufactured.
1678/9 - Grinling Gibbons Charles II Royal Hospital Chelsea.
1686 - Grinling Gibbons - Standing Figure James II formerly in Whitehall now in Trafalgar Square.
made by Laurens Vandermeulen and Mr A. Dievot.
Grinling Gibbons - Bronze Equestrian statue of William III, College Green, Dublin - Destroyed.
1678/9 - Grinling Gibbons - Windsor Castle Bronze Equestrian Statue of Charles II cast by Josias Ibach of Stone Bridge, Hyde Park Corner.
1717 / 22 - The John van Nost II bronze Equestrian Statue of George I, now at the Barber Institute, Birmingham, formerly on the Essex Bridge in Dublin. Barber Institute Birmingham - subsequently reproduced several times in lead.
1719 - Bronze King Henry VI by Francis Bird in Eton College, School Yard.
1733 - 35 - Michael Rysbrack's magnificent bronze equestrian statue of William III at Bristol.
This statue was made to be seen from a distance so one would not expect the quality to be as good as a sculpture made to be seen at close quarters. There are records of visits to his workshop to see the founding of this statue.
1737 - Edward VI by Scheemakers - St Thomas' Hospital.
1741 - Statue of Thomas Guy by Peter Scheemakers - Guys Hospital.
c.1745 - Bronze busts of Lord Chesterfield by Louis Francois Roubiliac. Dublin Castle, Louvre, and Victoria and Albert Museum.
Roubiliac also produced small scale bronze reliefs of Handel, Garrick, Conyers Middleton and Pope.
1753 - John van Nost III - Bronze Equestrian Statue of George II cast in Dublin put up on St Stephen's Green, Dublin - destroyed. (this project was also tendered for by Roubiliac).
Undated - The Rysbrack busts of Newton and Cromwell sold in the studio sale of 20 April 1765.
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Of Tangential interest - the Making and Casting of a Bronze Equestrian Statue.
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Brass Sculpture and the Ideology of Bronze in Britain 1660–1851 - Sculpture Journal January 2005.
Greg Sullivan mentions of 26 people describing themselves as founders between 1660 - 1700 and 122 between 1700 - 1750 but this of course represents the whole trade from cannons to belt buckles - of which the casting of statuary was a minuscule part.
Sullivan also mentions a Richard Paulson, Brass Founder of St Martin's in the Fields whose will was proven in 1746 Prob 11/751
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