A Very Fine Portrait Bust
No marks but very obviously Coade.
The photographs here about 20 years old.
This bust was briefly on the market.
It went to a London collector.
Where is it now??
Monday, 2 February 2026
The Coade Premises at Narrow Wall, Lambeth - a few notes on the Coade manufactury and some of its products.
This is a series of notes to act as an aide memoire a- the plan being to expand on it in the future.
This subject of Coade is a huge rabbit hole to disappear down and I am only scratching the surface here.
The history of the Coade manufactury is inextricably entwined with that of the sculptor John Bacon I (1740 - 99) who was with the company probably from the beginning firstly as an assistant to Daniel Pincot before his dismissal in 1771 and then becoming manager.
I could not have written this without first reading the pioneering work and invaluable source.
Mrs Coade's Stone by Alison Kelly and Revisiting the Origins of Coade Stone by Caroline Stanford.
Another very useful and updated resource is -
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Richard Holt and his Artificial Stone.
In 1722, Richard Holt took out a patent with the carpenter-turned-architect Thomas Ripley A patient for ‘compound liquid metall, by which artificiall stone and marble is made by casting the same into moulds of any form, as statues, columns, capitalls’, was granted to Thomas Ripley and Richard Holt, Esq’s, on 31st May 1722”.
A second patented to Richard Holt and Samuel London was issued on the 13th June 1722, “for a certain new composition or mixture (without any sort of clay) for making of white ware, formed and moulded in a new method”.
‘A certain Compound Liquid Metal never before known and used by the Ancients or Moderns, by which Artificial Stone and Marble is made by casting or running the metall into Moulds of any Form or Figure ... which being petrified or vetrified [sic] and finished by Strong Fire, becomes more durable and harder than Stone and Marble ...’
In 1730 Holt published - A Short Treatise of Artificial Stone, as 'tis now made, and converted into all manner of curious embellishments, and proper ornaments, of architecture: with a grovelling dedication to Lord Burlington.
The Richard Holt treatise is available on line at -
https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-short-treatise-of-arti_holt-richard_1730
He gave his address as The Artificial Stone Warehouse over against York Buildings Stairs and near Cupers Bridge in Lambeth, Surrey in 1730.
Holt’s Short Treatise informs us that: ‘a good round Catalogue of these [applications] has already been published for me…and runs as follows, viz. Columns, Pedestals, Entablatures, Cornices,Pediments, Ballustrades, Statues, Rusticks, Fascias, Coppings of Walls and Chimneys, Chimney-pieces, Hearth-Stones, Architraves, Frontispieces of Doors, Windows, Alcoves and Grotto’s, Cascades, Obelisques, Arches, Piazza’s, Key-Stones, Steps, Pavements, Urns, balls…Tomb-stones, Monuments, Sun-Dials, Crests for Doors, gates and Gateways, Statuary of all Sorts,
Pipes of all Bores and Sizes…the prices are fix’d as near as I can, to about one Third part of the Price of Stone, and one Half of the Price of Lead.
There's alſo a Show of Goods on the Gable-End, towards the River, that will direct to the Houſe; where, at any time, when the Water is above or about Half Flood, Gentlemen may Land at the very Door, and have nothing to do, but to Step, ot set their Foot, out the Boat, into the House.
The short lived Holt business had disappeared after August 1732, and the final sale notice has an air of desperation: Holt’s goods were ‘To be sold at a very cheap Rate, for ready Money'.
As yet no confirmed example of his work has survived.
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Batty Langley and Artificial Stone.
See - Batty Langley's Early Years in London 1729 -35, Langley Hans Sloane and Artificial Stone - Christine Macaleavy. Garden History, Vol. 44, No. 2 (WINTER 2016), pp. 191-208
(18 pages)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44987901
I have touched on Langley and his Artificial Stone elsewhere see -
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Daily Journal (London, England), Friday, March 26, 1731;
Issue 3189.
Langley was evidently making artificial stone before 1730 for he staged a demonstration in London on 11 November 1729, when a comparison was made between the weight-bearing capacity of his product and natural Portland stone.
It was reported in the Northampton Mercury that the Portland stone broke when the weight placed on it exceeded 168 lbs, whilst Langley's formidable artificial stone only collapsed when the weight was increased to 276 lbs.
George Vertue described Langley’s product as ‘a New invention of casting in stone or a hard composition - busts, statues, columns &c. or any frize or cornish workes for building. in immitation of free stone. & said to be more durable ... made near Lambeth and sold by one Batty Langley’, whom he described disparagingly as ‘a bold face undertaker’ (Vertue III, 51).
The material may
not indeed have been entirely of Langley’s own invention since a similar substance had
been patented by Richard Holt in 1722 and Holt maintained that Langley obtained
the formula by deception.
During the spring and summer of 1731 Langley advertised that ‘Sculptured or Carved Ornaments’, including statues, busts, ‘all manner of curious Vases, Urns, Pine Apples, Pedestals for Sundials, Balustrades, Key-Stones to the Arches of Windows and Doors, Bases and Capital for Piers of Gates, Columns and Pilasters’ were available from his warehouse at ‘the Hercules Head, near the Faulcon-Stairs on the Bank-side in Southwark’ (Daily Ad, 25 May-6 July 1731).
Holt had retaliated with a notice stating that ‘it appears from three several Affidavits, how and by what means [Langley] has come at any Insight into the Art of making Artificial Stone; and how very defective and short of Holt’s true Secret, his Discoveries (by tampering with Workmen) must needs be’ (Daily Ad, 28 May-1 June 1731).
None of Holts or Langley’s artificial stone products have been identified and no information about the composition has been discovered but it is possible that a fired clay portrait medallion of Sir Isaac Newton, formerly in Langley’s possession, is one of his products (British Museum MLA SL 1984).
An investigation into the artificial stone business was
carried out by Rupert Gunnis, in which he noticed some payments to a 'Langley'
for “stone?” garden ornaments at Longford Castle, Wiltshire, 1748-58.
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John Bacon (1740 - 99), Nicholas Crisp (104 - 84) and Daniel Pincot (before his annexation by Eleanor Coade in 1769).
These are rough notes and will need editing.
John Bacon (1740 - 99) was the son of Thomas Bacon, a cloth worker and was apprentice to Nicholas Crisp in 1755.
Nicholas Crisp was a man of many parts - freeman of the Haberdashers Company, a merchant, watchmaker and owner of a jewellery shop in Bow Churchyard in the City of London until 1766, he was in partnership with John Saunders, a Lambeth delftware potter.
Crisp was also a founder and very active member of the Society of Arts founded at Rawthmells Coffee House 22 March 1754.
The British Magazine and Review, or Universal Miscellany, for October 1782, says:‘
In the year 1755, he [John Bacon] was placed with Mr Crisp of Bow Church Yard, who having a Manufactory of China at Lambeth, which Mr Bacon sometimes attended, he had an opportunity of observing the models of different sculptors, which were frequently sent to a pottery in the same premises to be burned. The sight of these models inspired him with an inclination for this art’.
the Universal Magazine of Knowledge (September 1800) reports that at Vauxhall John Bacon
‘was chiefly employed in forming shepherds, shepherdesses, and such like small ornamental pieces; yet, for a self-taught artist to perform even works like these with taste, and, in less than two years, form (as he did) all the models for the manufactory, was to give indications of no ordinary powers.
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The Vauxhall porcelain factory based at the Glasshouse
Street Works, in Vauxhall, South London, when operated by the potter John
Sanders (or from 1758, his heir William Sanders) and the merchant/entrepreneur
Nicholas Crisp, between 1751 and 1764 (info BM).
Glasshouse Street was probably the last of the English delftware pothouses, manufacturing delftware from 1743-1784. As well as tin-glazed ware, experimental porcelain was manufactured between 1752 and 1763 based on experiments by John Sanders and Nicholas Crisp. Between 1784 and 1823, stoneware not delftware was made there.
John Sanders had founded the pothouse no later than 1743 and also opened another delftware pothouse at Mortlake between 1743 and 1745.
Sanders was partnered by Nicholas Crisp from 1751 until 1758, when Sanders died leaving his share of the pottery to his son William and son-in-law Henry Richards (1758-72).
When the factory went bankrupt in 1764, Crisp moved to Bovey Tracey in Devon. The earliest evidence for porcelain production there dates from 1767.
https://www.academia.edu/28036592/Nicholas_Crisp_at_Bovey_Tracey
Crisp was bankrupted again in 1768. He died at Indio in 1774.
Henry was succeeded by
his son John Richards (1772-84). There then followed a long period when only
stoneware was manufactured at Glasshouse Street by Henry Bingham and the Moss
brothers (1784-1823).
By 1764, at the age of 24 Bacon is recorded as a modeller at Wedgwood at the same time as he was producing models for the Chelsea-Derby factory.
Enrolling at the Royal Academy in 1769 enabled Bacon, at 28, to make the transition from a modeller in manufacture to a professional sculptor.
The foundation of the Royal Academy, with its focus on teaching, saw many of the sculptors who had begun their careers by exhibiting at the Society of Arts enrol at the RA school. John Flaxman and Thomas Banks registered in 1769 and Joseph Nollekens in 1770
John Bacon won Royal Academy Schools Gold Medal in 1769. -
For Memoires of John Bacon by Rev. Cecil see - not entirely reliable!
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc1.0036692689&seq=9
In January 1767 Daniel Pincot (who is erroneously listed as
‘Pincat’ in Graves 1907, 199 and Gunnis 1968, 304) advertised that he had set
up as an artificial-stone manufacturer in Goulston Square, Whitechapel.
Pincot advertised that he had set up as an artificial-stone manufacturer in Goulston Square, Whitechapel. He offered ‘all sorts of rich carved Ornaments used in Buildings, viz. Tablets, Frizes, Medalions, Ionic and Corinthian Capitals, Statues, Bustos, Vases, etc in several Compositions; some resembling Portland Stone, but much harder and more durable, others still more beautiful, approaching nearer to Marble; the Whole executed in a Manner far exceeding any Thing of the like Kind that has hitherto been offered to the Publick’ (Daily Ad, 31 Jan 1767 cited by Valpy 1986, 210).
On 7 July 1767 it was announced that ‘the Proprietor of the Artificial Stone Manufactory in Goulston-Square, has now opened a Warehouse at No. 18, the Corner of Glastonbury Court, in Long Acre’ (Daily Ad, 7 July 1767 cited by Valpy 1986, 210). Glastonbury Court ran between Rose Street and Conduit Court.
Later replaced by Lazenby Court
This may or may not have been Pincot himself, for by October 1767 George Davy had taken over the Goulston Square premises and Pincot was trading from Narrow Wall, Lambeth - some time between February and October 1767, when he advertised ‘a large Quantity of Goods of near 100 different Subjects, such as Figures, Busts, Tablets, Friezes, Medalions, Vases, Capitals of Different Orders of various Sizes’ for sale at his warehouse at 18 Long Acre, near Covent Garden.
In the same year Pincot exhibited an ‘antique basso-relievo, in artificial stone, unburned’ at the Free Society. In December 1767 there was a sale at Christie’s of artificial stone produced at Goulston Square over the last year, presumably by both Pincot and Davy.
The catalogue survives in the Christie archive and shows
that prices were considerably lower than those of comparable items listed in
the catalogue of the Coade Factory of Lambeth, published in 1783.
In March 1768 Davy announced that a large quantity of his
artificial stone had been sold by John Moreing at the Great Sale Room in Maiden
Lane, Covent Garden, adding ‘if due Encouragement is given to this Undertaking,
the Proprietor intends to continue the Manufactory’ (Daily Ad, 23/24 March
1768). Further sales at Moreing’s auction house and then at Blyth’s sale room
in Dean Street, Soho were advertised throughout 1768 and in 1770. The public
response appears to have been less than enthusiastic for Davy commented, ‘the
Proprietor has reason to think that many Gentlemen entertain a less opinion of
Artificial Stone by the Reports of some whose Interest it may be to deprecate
it’ (Daily Ad, 27 May 1768).
Davy’s last known advertisements appeared in April 1771
(Daily Ad, 29 April 1771) and by July 1773 he was financially ruined. He wrote
to his patron, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham requesting payment for four
medallions of Alexander and Hercules (6), explaining that they ‘were made by
your particular Order and at the Sale I bought them for your Lordship but am
now so poor that I cannot clare [sic] the lots therefore let me intreat your
Lordship to be so kind as to advance me the money or else the goods will be
resold and all the charges attending it will fall on me’. He also informed him
that if he had any further orders he should approach a ‘Mr Smith at
Nightsbridge’ who had bought all his moulds (Rockingham Vouchers, Sheffield
City Library, No 1, microfilm A314). In October 1773 Davy wrote a yet more
desperate letter to the Duke of Northumberland asking him to settle a bill for
£14 8s for various pieces of artificial stone (5),‘for I must Actually go to
Prison in a City Action if I can’t raise fifteen pounds by the 15th or 16th of
this month’ (Davy/Northumberland).
Rockingham bought reliefs, busts and statues after the
antique from Davy, as well as a statue of a druid (2) and charity children (7),
both subjects later produced by the Coade Factory. Some of Davy’s moulds may
still have been in use at Lambeth more than 50 years later, for it seems likely
that ‘Mr Smith at Nightsbridge’ was a predecessor or partner of Bridges of
Knightsbridge whose factory was bought by Mrs Coade in 1775. This suggestion of
a direct connection between Davy, Bridges and Coade is supported by the
production of large-scale statues of druids by all three businesses (see
Bridges, of Knightsbridge, 1 and Coade Factory, of Lambeth, 207).
Pincot made no reference to Mrs Coade in his pamphlet and he
seems to have angered her by taking certain business transactions into his own
hands, including an agreement to provide Borghese vases for Stourhead and
Kedleston.
Daily Advertiser (September 23rd_2Sth, 1771), p.2.
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The Coade Manufactury - the Images.
Unsigned drawing - it appears to show a sphinx and fountain figure in the Vestibule.
The wrought iron lamp and overthrow over the gate with the flanking urns on piers is missing here
A later fountain figure, derived from Giambologna is at Stoneleigh Abbey.
Image from British Museum
Presumably 1780/90's.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_G-1-233
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Images from the London Picture Archive - used with permission.
Note the man posing with his arm leaning on a font (as inthe Church at Debden).
There appears to be three versions of this drawing by different artists.
Charles Tomkins, JT Smith, and George Sheppard c. 1810.
The frontage was rebuilt at the same time as the Narrow Walls road was straightened - cutting through College Street which ran alongside the Coade works to the King's Arms Stairs on the River to become Belvedere Road.
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Drawing signed on bottom right by illustrator, engraver and historian JT Smith (of Nollekens and his Times fame).
With a man leaning on the Debden/ Windsor type font.
British Museum.
.......................................
The Coade Manufactury with Coate of Arms over the Entrance.
Charles Tompkins.
Signed and dated 1801.
This drawing appears to show the legs of the statue of Polyphemus (illustrated below) which was later set up in the Westminster Bridge showroom before being sold to the Fonthill Estate in the sale of 1843.
It also shows a pair of leopards on rusticated plinths and a pair of Herm / Term type busts and a very large pair of female figures.
.
British Museum.
................................
Watercolour of The Yard of the Coade works.
George Sheppard undated.
Here illustrated is the Urn with the Floral arrangement which is used on the roof of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
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The Rebuilt Frontage of the Coade works on Narrow Walls - Belvedere Road.
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The Debden Church Essex Coade Stone Font dated 1786.
A second was set up in the Royal Chapel at Windsor.
and another at Milton Abbey Dorset (disappeared).
Believed to have been modelled by Robert Brettingham de Carle 1748 - 1791.
For much more on de Carle and his family see below.
A version perhaps the Milton Font was sold by Christie's 16 April 1997 - lot 536.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-753310 (no image available).
A Font at Buckland Abbey Chapel Devon has distinct similarities perhaps coincidental..
In the 1799 Catalogue for Coades Gallery it is described as
"No 41. 4 Gothic Font—from the original, executed for His Majeſty, and placed in St. George's Chapel, ft Windſor, alſo at Debden Church in Essex; and at Milton-Abbey Dorsetshire ; round the lower part are eight Gothic niches, containing the following statues from paintings by the late Sir Joshua Reynolds, for the grand window in New College, Oxford - 4ft. 10in. by 2ft. 4in".
The catalogue also notes the Gothic screen in the Bray chapel "so much admired for its lightness and the richness and the ricness of its groyned cieling with the arms casts etc were all executed by this manufactury for his manufactury in the year 1790".
The Bowl of the font is supported by cherubim heads, while its buttressed lower part displays pedestal-supported statues emblematic of the Christian and Cardinal virtues.
The latter figures of Temperance, Fortitude, Justice and Prudence were derived from the Gothic chapel window of New College, Oxford, exhibited by Thomas Jervase in Pall Mall, 1783, and executed after a composition by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
The font pattern, designed for Mrs Eleanor Coade by the architect Richard Holland (d.1827), was originally commissioned by R.M.T. Chiswell for the St. George's Chapel at Debden Church, Essex.
The latter, incorporating the Chiswell armorial shields, was inspected by King George III at Buckingham Palace in 1786 and was discussed at the time in the European Magazine.
Another font of this pattern was displayed at Coade's gallery in 1799
but, like the one recorded at Milton Abbey, Dorset, its present whereabouts has
not been traced. See A. Kelly Mrs Coade's Stone, Upton-upon-Severn, 1991,
pp.109-111.
see - Coade’s artificial stone in St George’s Chapel’, Annual Report of The Society of Friends of St Georges and the Descendants of the Knights of the Garter Ida Darlington, (1955) pp. 13-18.
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The Image below from -
The Debden Church Font.
It does not have the foot section shown on the photographs of the Bray Chapel Windsor Font.
.........................
The St Georges Chapel Windsor Coade Stone Font.
text here adapted from - the essay by Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)
https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/788/
A bill from Eleanor Coade dated 1790 shows that she was paid £48 14s 4½ d for modelling a frieze for the Edward IV monument and a gothic font in St George’s Chapel [SGC XIV/1790/7].
The font itself is described in
the 1799 catalogue of works of the Coade factory:
It had an octagonal base with “eight Gothic niches”
containing statues based on paintings made by Sir Joshua Reynolds “for the
grand window in New College, Oxford”. The figures represented Faith, Hope,
Charity, Temperance, Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Life. “Faith”, in the
words of the catalogue, “standing fixedly on both feet, bearing the cross, the
symbol of her belief, has her eyes and hands raised to heaven – while Hope,
looking at the same heaven, appears springing forward to it so eagerly that her
feet scarce touch the ground; part of an anchor, her attribute, is shown in the
niche.”
The Joshua Reynold's West Window at New College Oxford - the Engraving of 1785.
Lettered below the image with the title in open letters, and
a dedication to Reverend John Oglander from the publisher, and "Painted on
Glass by Mr. Jervaise.", and "Painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Publish'd Septr. 1st. 1785., by John Boydell, Engraver in Cheapside, London, Engraved by Richard Earlom.".
Another example survives at Debden in Essex, and apparently, when
a copy was shown in the Royal Academy, the King asked for it to be sent to the
Queen’s House (later Buckingham Palace) so that he and his family could look at
it at leisure. It was a piece in which the firm was particularly proud.
A photograph taken by John Harrington in 1872 shows this font in the Bray Chapel, with an elaborate base of sheep’s heads and feet.
St John Hope maintains that just 9 years later, it was broken up and buried underneath the grand monument to the Prince Imperial.
The photograph taken in 1929 by Robert Burns Robertson, shows
the font still intact, although with some minor damage. It cannot then have
been, as described in the book Mrs Coade’s Stone by Alison Kelly, “smashed up for hard-core to
support the monument”. So where did it go?
Perhaps the Coade one was unwanted, or considered old-fashioned by this time, and the decision was made to bury it. A.Y. Nutt, Chapter Surveyor from 1873 to 1912, states in his account books that money was spent in August 1887 on “Materials for laying paving in chapel, consequent on old font being buried“ [SGC XIII.A.8].
Eleanor Cracknell (Assistant Archivist)
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The 1929 Photograph of the Windsor Font.
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View of the River Thames with the River Bank at Lambeth.
Kings Arms Stairs.
Etching and aquatint.
"Drawn & Engrav'd by J. W. Edy / Publish'd Feby 17.
1791, by John Harris, Sweeting Alley, Cornhill & No. 8, Broad Street
London"
J W Edy 1760 - 1820
In
the foreground, Westminster Bridge beyond, and Westminster Abbey and
surrounding buildings on the opposite shore; in the foreground a number of people
converse by the river bank, two boats close to shore, one with man and large
basket of flowers, the other a ferry with four customers, another decorated
barge moored, at far left the 'Artificial Stone Manufactory'. 1791.
Images below from the British Museum.
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Brief History of the Ownership and Management of Messrs Coade from 1769.
Eleanor senior was born in 1708 in Dorset and married George
Coade who died in 1769. She died in 1796.
Eleanor Coade II (3 June 1733 - 1821) was born in, and lived most of her early life in Exeter and then, from 1759, in London after her father had moved from Exeter. George Coade had been declared bankrupt in 1759.
George Coade -
There is some evidence that Eleanor Coade had run her own linen and drapery business before embarking on the new artificial stone business at Lambeth.
In 1769 Eleanor Coade Snr bought the Artificial Stone Manufactury of Daniel Pincot at Narrow Walls in Lambeth.
It is not clear what their relationship was but they were both Dissenters.
He worked briefly with her as manager at the Narrow Walls - it seems that John Bacon had accompanied him from Goulston Square, Spitalfields to Lambeth shortly beforehand.
In
1771 she dismissed him and appointed the sculptor John Bacon as the
supervisor. It is possible that Pincot had been moonlighting or supplying his own objects after joining forces.
On 11 September 1771 an advertisement appears which states:
‘WHEREAS Mr Daniel Pincot has been represented as a Partner
in the Manufactory which has been conducted by him; Eleanor Coade, the real
Proprietor, finds it proper to inform the Publick that the said Mr Pincot has
no Proprietry in this Affair; and no Contracts or Agreements, Purchases or
Receipts, will be allowed by her unless signed or assented to by herself.’
At first, Coade pieces were stamped ‘COADE’, or, for a period in the 1780s to 1790s, ‘COADE'S LITHODIPYRA’.
In 1784 Eleanor Coade took over the lease of Belmont, Lyme Regis from her uncle Samuel Coade
The frontage was embelished with many of the products from the Coade Manufactory - the keystone over the front door is inscribed Brabam 1785.
In 1799 she took on as partner her cousin John Sealy (1749 - 1813), and the firm became Coade & Sealy until his death.
After the death of John Bacon (7 August 1799) John de Vaere (1755 - 1830) who had been working for Wedgwood until 1795 was appointed chief designer at around this time.
The Coade Gallery Handbook was published in 1799.
After the death of Sealy she then appointed William Croggon, a remote relation, to be her manager.
The Croggon work books from 1813–21 survive. [PRO, C.111/106] The firm's stamp, which had been ‘COADE & SEALY’, reverted to being ‘COADE’.
On Eleanor Coade's death in 1821, William Croggon purchased the business and traded successfully, doing much work for Buckingham Palace, until 1833.
He then went bankrupt, probably through £20,000 worth of work left unpaid by the Duke of York, and died in 1835. The Duke was building a new house in London but also had a reputation for never making any payments to his tradesmen and had in fact died £200,000 in debt. (needs fact checking).
In 1828 William Croggon obtained from the authorities of Jesus College a new lease of his premises in Belvedere Road for 9½ years at a rent of £140 a year.
The ground is described as approximately 195 feet from east to west and 85 feet from north to south.
The plan on this page shows the site in 1804 before the formation of Belvedere Road, and on Plate 38a is a view of the Narrow Wall and frontage at about the same date on which the curved line of Narrow Wall and of the path running towards the river by the side of the factory, can be clearly seen.
Considerable alterations took place, just before Croggon got his lease, to improve the new frontage to Belvedere Road.
At the Duchy of Cornwall office is a water colour drawing by Buckler made after the alteration. It shows that the old house was altered and adapted, but not entirely rebuilt.
There are a few pieces which have the Croggan mark but his
management only lasted until 1837 when the lease was turned over to
Danforth & his new business partner,
Thomas Routledge. Together they ran the terracotta and scagliola works manufacturing tiles, and also producing small numbers of Coade stone ornaments until 1840. But they
couldn’t make it pay either and the factory closed.
It appears that no pieces dated later than 1840 exist, though the moulds were not sold until 1843.
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The information below from The Ceramic Art of Great Britain Lewellynn Jewitt pub. 1878
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/73875/73875-h/73875-h.htm
“The information got from the fire-man that worked at the Artificial Stone Manufactory, Lambeth:—There is three kilns, the largest is 9 feet diameter and about 10 feet high, the other two are sizes under; they have only three fire-holes to each, and they are about 14 inches in the clear.
They
make use of no saggers, but their kilns are all muffled about two inches thick,
which was always done by this fire-man. They always was four days and four
nights of fireing a kilns, and the moment the goods are fire’d up he always
took and stop’d the kilns intirely close from any air whatever without lowering
the fires at all. He has been use to fire intirely with coal (which are call’d
Hartley coals—they are not much unlike yours at Derby). He never made use of
any thermometer, but depended intirely on his own knowledge. The composition
shrinks about half an inch in a foot in the drying, and about the same in the
firing. A great deal of the ornaments are 4 inches thick when fired, and he has
fired figures 9 feet high. This man has had the intire management of building
the kilns, setting and firing them for many years; his wages was one guinea per
week, and for every night when he fired he had 2s. 6d. for the small kiln, 3s.
for the next size, and 3s. 6d. for the largest.
“Sir,—Quite unexpected, the fire-man from Lambeth that I
have been after so long, call’d on me on Monday, to say that he was out of
imploy; therefore I engaged him to meet me at Field’s in the evening, which he
did; and inclosed is all the information I cou’d get from him. I informed him
that when I wrote to him in the country I was imploy’d to look out for a person
in his way, but did not know wether there was now the same person wanted or
not, but wou’d write. At the same time I ask’d him if he shou’d like to go down
into the country to make a trial for a short time, and see how he was likely to
succeed; but this he seem’d to decline for some time, unless he went upon a
certainty for constant imployment. After drinking a bowl of punch, he said he
wou’d go down to make trial, in case his expences was all paid up and down, and
paid for the time he was away. He seems to think, before he cou’d attempt doing
any thing, there must be some alteration made to the kiln; but of this you will
be the best judge, if you agree to have him down. He seems pretty confident
they will be glad to have him back to Lambeth again very soon: in short, he
thinks they cannot do without him. He says they had better a made him a present
of £500 than a parted with him. I have been inform’d thro’ another hand that
had use to work at the manufactory they have had very great losses in the kilns
since he left, and that they have lost everything in the large kiln. He seems
very confident in succeeding in firing China figures to any size; but of this
he cannot be a judge till a trial is made. After I first see this man, I went
and inform’d Mr. Vulliamy of it, and his advise is to for you to have him down,
tho’ he says he is a drunken bad chap, but clever in his business. If you
shou’d so determine to have him down, I think sooner the better, as he expects
soon to be call’d to Gen. Conway’s[54] again, and likewise to fire some
figures, &c., for a Mrs. Dimer,[54] in town. He has promis’d to call again
in a few days, therefore you will please to give your answer. Mr. Vulliamy very
much wants two boys of the last mould sent: begs you will forward them
immediately. Mr. V. inform’d me a few days since that he would write to you the
first opportunity, and am,
In 1792 the following letter, also in my own possession, was
addressed to William Coffee by Miss E. Coade, and shows what a clear-headed,
right-minded, and well-disposed employer she was:—
“Lyme, 25 July, 1792.
“Your sincere friend,
.......................
The first Coade Trade Card.
Probably printed before the death of Strahan.
Printmaker: Wray, P. Draughtsman: Ryley, Charles Reuben (Possibly after)
Trade card of Coade, with the goddess Hestia, keeper of hearth and home, with a lit torch in one hand fending off Chronos, the Greek personification of Time, who is attempting to seize a sculpted figure personifying Sculpture and Architecture (as signified by the pair of compasses in one hand and a set square in the other).
In the background a sculpture of the Three Graces on a Corinthian
composite capital in the kiln.
These are the only known images of the Coade Kilns.
Etching and stipple.
Image from the British Museum.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG195726
William Strahan (24 March 1715 – 9 July 1785) was a Scottish printer and publisher, and a politician who sat in the House of Commons between from 1774 to 1784. He was succeeded by his son Andrew.
He was a correspondent and later a good friend of Benjamin Franklin.
By 1770 he owned the biggest printing operation in England, comprising three separate printing businesses in six buildings.
..........................
The Coade Catalogue of 1784.
London, Printed:: To be had at the Manufactory, and of J. Strahan, Bookseller, No. 67, Strand. -, M,DCC, LXXXIV. [Price One Shilling].
The title plate is signed as engraved by R. Wray. Other
plates are not signed.
Some of the engravings are dated 1773 onward.
The catalogue contains 778 entries: vases, fireplaces,
capitals, friezes, medallions...;
A complete version is available on the excellent website of the Bibliotheque Nationale, France.
The Yale Centre for Bitish Art have slightly mutilated copy available in high resolution -
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/alma:9932847843408651
Another copy although in less resolution is available on line from the British Museum Collection
The Soane Museum has a copy - not available on line
https://collections.soane.org/b9139
The Royal Academy has a copy formerly propert of John Yenn. not available on line
Here is a small selection of the engravings.
................................
The Coade Gallery Catalogue of 1799
.........................
A Later Trade Card (post 1800) printed after the Establishment of the Coade Gallery in Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth.
Hestia wears a band carrying the legend: "Ignea
vis" (‘the power of fire’) and above the kiln in the background "nec
edax abolere vetustas" (from Book XV of Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
'And now my work is finished, which neither the anger of Jove, nor fire nor
sword nor the passing years shall devour’).
Image - British Museum.
Strahan - 67 Strand.
William Strahan (24 March 1715 – 9 July 1785) was a Scottish
printer and publisher, and a politician who sat in the House of Commons between
from 1774 to 1784. He was a correspondent and later a good friend of Benjamin
Franklin. He sat for Joshua Reynolds.
The business was tsken over after his death by his son Andrew (1749 - 1831).
...............................
The William Croggan (Late Coade and Sealey) Trade Card (post 1820).
Printed after the purchase of the business by Croggan in 1820
.............................
.......................................
The Entrance to the Coade Gallery of Sculpture
at Pedlar's Acre on Westminster Bridge Road, Lambeth
From the European Magazine Vol. 41. 1802.
Here we see the caryatids as used on the porch at Schomberg House, Pall Mall.
The group on the frontage illustrated here was re erected on the Croggan premises on the New Road, the corner of Hampstead and Euston Road, Euston. Disappeared.
See the illustration below.
.................................
The Coade Polyphemus.
Extract from the Somerset House Gazette 1824.
The reference to Acis and Galatea and Polyphemus of interest.
These statues were sold to JB Papworth for James Morrison and erected at the Fonthill Estate in Wiltshire after 1743.
Acquired from the Rushworth & Jarvis auction of the stock of the Coade Artifcial Stone Manufactory, Lambeth on 23 July 1843, by architect J.B. Papworth, (d. 1847) on behalf of James Morrison (d. 1859), for 16 guineas and subsequently removed to The Pavillion, Fonthill Estate, Wiltshire, and thence by descent from James Morrison to his great, great, great grandson.
Alastair Morrison, 3rd Baron Margadale, from whom along with a small group of Acis and Galatea acquired by
Talisman Antiques of Gillingham.
In their wisdom the smaller group were sold separately!
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5838449
The figure was perhaps designed by John de Vaere (d. 1830) possibly in circa 1798-99 when de Vaere was active with the Coade manufactory. It was not mentioned in the Coade catalogues of 1784. In 1799 John Bacon died, who had been the chief designer and supervisor of the firm from 1771.
Bacon was replaced by de Vaere who is cited in the new guidebook, '[de Vaere] is now constantly engaged at the Manufactory in its various branches of statuary &tc.’ (Coade’s Gallery, 1799)
In 1787 de Vaere was employed by Josiah
Wedgwood to make models from the Antique under the supervision of the sculptor,
John Flaxman, R.A. (d. 1826), an experience which would have ably equipped him
for the role at Coade.
see -
https://www.ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/68/92/5083/
"This stupendous design is conceived at the moment when Polyphemus discovers, from the summit of the rock, the nymph Galatea with his rival Acis, upon whom, in his fury, he hurls a fragment of stone, and kills him.
This work occupies a space of 20 feet in height by 12 ft in width, the
Polyphemus is a statue of 10 ft. 6 ins, a cave is formed in the rock, at the
entrance of it lays the Acis and Galatea, much larger than life".
..........................
London Museum Drawing. Croggan in the New Road (Euston Road).
William Croggon was succeeded by his son Thomas John Croggon
in 1836.
Inscribed in pencil at bottom: 'Manufactory for "Coades Artificial Stone", corner of the Hampstead and Euston Roads nearly opposite Tottenham Court Road, 4 doors from the Adam and Eve public house.'
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-94452/manufactory-for-coades-artificial-stone/
.........................
The End.
Auction 21 July 1843.
As far as I am aware no Austen and Seeley statue of a River God has reappeared.
But it is interesting to note that the moulds went to Austen and Seeley rather than Blashfield or Blanchard.
...............................
Messrs Blanchard and Artificial Stone
Mark Henry Blanchard was born at Portsea, Hampshire and christened on 30 August 1817. He was apprenticed at the Coade Factory in Lambeth in the firm's declining years, probably when it was managed by Thomas John Croggon between c.1835-37, or after the business had been let to Thomas Routledge and John Danforth Greenwood 1837 and lasted until 1840.
Blanchard commenced business in
Blackfriars Road, Lambeth shortly after 1840 (probably working initially in plaster)
and then appears to have acquired some of the Coade Factory's moulds when
Routledge and Greenwood consigned them at auction in 1843.
Note the continued use of a varient of the Coade engraving in Blanchards promotional material (below) and the mention of John Bacon as designer.
..........................
A Map of Lambeth of the Mid 18th Century.
..................
Crop from John Roque's Map of London of 1746.
The land on which the Coade manufactory was built (just North of College St) appears to show sevral ponds.
............................
Lambeth cropped from Horwood's Map of London of 1799.
Showing the land leased by George Biggin from Jesus College and sublet to various manufacturers.
.........................
Fadden's (A later re printed and edited version of the Horwood map of London) 1819.
No mention of Coade but still shows the Artificial Stone Manufactory.
The new road now cuts through College St.
There appears to be a back entrance to Coades via College St,
....................
Plan of the Coade Manufactury.
Size of the plot - 84 x 133 ft. strangely no sign of a kiln.
............
College St, Lambeth.
View lookingtowards the river and Kings Arms Stairs.
C. 1890.
No 1 on the corner is the The White Hart public house on the south side of College
Street, seen on the right, and Belvedere Road.
......................
The Jesus College Plan of 1804, which was annotated in 1828 after the fire.
It shows the route of the new street (Belvedere Road) cutting through College Street.
Coade and Sealey's works are on the top left corner (with later annotation Croggan)
Jesus College, Oxford. Ref SU.2/18.
Currently the highest resolution I can obtain (from Georgian Group Journal 2016 - Caroline Stanford).
I will endevour to obtain an highter resolution image in due course
The shore at Lambeth was an important location, with
craftsmen on hand to renovate the large ornate barges that were rowed by a team
of skilled oarsmen. Repairs were constantly needed for these important vessels.
In addition, intricate carving had to be maintained and often gilded.
A famous location was Searle’s Boatyard which was situated
on the shore just above Westminster Bridge, on the Lambeth side of the Thames.
The family boat- and barge-building concern of George
Searle, at Lambeth, was in existence from about 1763 until the late 1820s. A
‘Mr Searle’ is known to have bought the old Skinners’ Company barge as late as
1858 and converted it for Queen’s College, Oxford, to be used as a houseboat.
.....................
Belvedere Road, Lambeth.
Laid out in 1814—27 belvedere Road had previously been called Narrow Wall with Ragged Row to the South. It included the area of the Hopes which was west of Hungerford Bridge and owned by Jesus College, Oxford from 1685.
It included Theobald's Dock and Chambers' Dock and an open ditch on the east side as well. It was partly leased to members of the Cupers family. The area where the Coade manufactory was located was y the College to
Some of the area was called Ragged Row and this
was developed as Belvedere Crescent along with much else of the area.
Evidence of the factory's activity was unearthed when the
Festival of Britain site was being cleared. A rough granite bed, with a square
central hole, was displayed on the sloping grass bank in front of the Royal
Festival Hall.
........................
Trade Card of Robert Brettingham de Carle (1748 - 1791).
An ink inscription on the reverse suggests 1791?
Stangate St, Lambeth.
Stangate Street and Stangate Wharf were immediatly South of Westminster Bridge Road.
Image courtesy British Museum.
Sculptor and modeller, baptised in Norwich on 17 July 1748, one of a family of stonemasons and builders, based principally in that city.
His father, Robert de Carle I, was a bricklayer, and of his known brothers, John de Carle (1750–1828) was a marble mason and builder and Robert de Carle II (bap. 1761; d. 1837), a stonemason.
It is thought that he was named after his paternal
grandmother, who was probably a sister of the architect Matthew Brettingham. (This needs to be fact checked).
While still a young man, Robert Brettingham de Carle moved to London.
In 1783 he exhibited a portrait of a child (no 368) at the Royal Academy.
In 1785 he exhibited three works, including a wax portrait
of a lady, at the Royal Academy, giving his address as Stangate Street, Lambeth
On 18 Feb. 1774, he married Ann Davy at St George, Hanover Square.
In the following year he produced what may be the earliest of a group of salt-glazed stoneware jugs, at one of the Lambeth potteries, this, a harvest jug, is inscribed with the name of his mother-in-law, also Ann Davy, and her village, Yoxford (in Suffolk). Two more jugs, both dated 1781, are inscribed with the names of botanists, William Curtis (in Hampshire County Museum) and de Carle’s brother-in-law, James Sowerby (in the Victoria and Albert Museum).
For his only appearance at the annual Royal Academy exhibitions, in 1785, he contributed three portraits (two in wax) from the address in Stangate Street, Lambeth.
By about this date he was working with the Coade artificial stone manufactory, at Narrow Walls Lambeth only a few hundred meters away.
Two signed works by de Carle in Coade stone are known, both from 1786: a font (designed by the architect Richard Holland) in St Mary the Virgin and All Saints, Debden, Essex, and a lunette with a relief depiction of three putti around a funerary urn bearing a portrait roundel of his mother-in-law, fitted int to the stone headstone over her grave in St Peter’s churchyard, Yoxford.
His last known work is a Coadestone coat of arms, erected in September 1792 above the entrance to the Norwich Shawl Manufactory in Colegate, Norwich.
“the very elegant coat of arms placed over the [Norwich] shawl manufactory…is a composition of Coade’s artificial stone manufactory, Lambeth, and the modelling exceuted by the deceased Mr Robert De Carle, a native of this city and son of Mr De Carle of this place (Norwich Chronicle 1792).
After Robert Brettingham de Carle's death in London on 7 February 1791, he was described in the Press as ‘the first artist of the Artificial Stone manufactory’ and ‘an eminent modeller, whose skill was unrivalled’ (Norfolk Chronicle, 12 Feb 1791; Bury Post, 16 Feb 1791).
For more on the very successful de Carle family of builders and masons of Norwich and Bury St Edmunds see -
https://tmwfamilyhistory.info/philip-barnes-elizabeth-de-carle/
The Memorial to Anne Davy at Yoxford with a Coade Stone Panel.
Norwich born Anne Davy who died in 1786 aged 72. Carved limestone headstone with fine lettering and semi-circular Coade stone panel depicting a carved classical urn with putti and a scroll draped over an anchor.
The scroll reads ‘death is swallowed up in victory’. On the urn is an oval panel containing a bust which is believed to be of Anne Davy. The left-hand figure holds up a coronet to the portrait set within the urn.
The panel is signed by Richard Brettingham De Carle who was Anne’s son in law.
De Carle was a relative of the architect Matthew Brettingham (Matthew Brettingham’s daughter having married a De Carle). RB De Carle is known to have worked at the Coade factory in Lambeth. The earliest known Coade stone memorial is at Winterborne Strickland in Dorset and dates from 1782.
......................................
An important brown stoneware jug by Robert Brettingham De
Carle, dated 1781.
John Samuel Clack
Bonhams Knightsbridge British and European Ceramics and Glass
Lot 295. 18 May 2016.
Catalogue entry by John Sandon which I have drawn on extensively here.
Only a small number of de Carle's wares are recorded, characterised by fine quality modelling in high relief, turning what was a utilitarian brown stoneware into a luxury product.
The earliest recorded example is a harvest jug of
different form inscribed 'R B De Carle/ Inv T & Fecit/ London/ 1775' and
bearing the names 'Anne Davy' and 'Yoxford',
This lot is one of three recorded jugs of the same basic form.
One in the Victoria and Albert Museum lacks the cottage and church vignettes and is illustrated by Robin Hildyard, Browne Muggs (1985), pp 46-47. It was made for the botanist James Sowerby, believed to have been married to De Carle's sister.
Another is in the Hampshire County Museum and is illustrated by Oswald, Hildyard and Hughes, English Brown Stoneware (1982), p.59 and was made for another botanist, William Curtis.
This also lacks the vignettes and has a different spout, said to be a caricature of Greaves, the colourist. It is also dated 1781 and is accompanied by a matching goblet.
Both Sowerby and Curtis were major influence on British pottery and porcelain decoration in the late 18th and early 19th century, their extensive botanical prints used as a source by many makers.
Presumably, De Carle knew them both, his East Anglian origins and his association with leading botanists of the time being sources for his business.
.......................
The V and A de Carle Jug of 1781.
Jug, salt-glazed stoneware, modelled by Robert Brettingham
de Carle for the botanist James Sowerby, Lambeth, 1781.
James Sowerby was born on 21 March 1757, in the City of
London; he died at No. 2-3 Mead Place, Lambeth, on 25 October 1822. He was the
son of John Sowerby, a carver of inscriptions (which might be significant), and his wife Arabella Goodspeed.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O150995/jug-brettingham-de-carle/
For a useful potted biog of James Sowerby (1757 - 1822) (of Mead Place Vauxhall) see
https://vauxhallhistory.org/james-sowerby-1757-1822/
...........
The son of James Sowerby and his wife Anne de Carle was baptised James de Carle Sowerby (1787 - 1871).
Anne Brettingham De Carle (1764-1815) was the wife of the English naturalist and illustrator James Sowerby (1757-1822). She was an illustrator in her own right.
Together with a cousin, James founded the Royal Botanic Society
and Gardens, Regents Park and was its secretary for 30 years.
For a brief partnership with Edward Lear see - https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-lear-edward-and-james-de-carle-4256527/?
His brother George Brettingham Sowerby (1788 - 1854) was the second son of James Sowerby - he was educated
at home under private tutors, and afterwards assisted his father in the
production of illustrated works on natural history. On the latter's death in
1822, he and his brother James De Carle Sowerby continued their father's work
on fossil shells, publishing the latter parts of the Mineral Conchology of
Great Britain.
see also The Sowerby Collection (1739 - 85).
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/637931bf-8dcc-4477-ad76-9b33871efa82
James Sowerby at no 2 Mead Place Lambeth. Trade Card c. 1786.
British Museum.
I suggest designed and engraved by Sowerby.
Inscription content: The mount is inscribed '1786', the date
of Banks' acquisition, which is presumed to be inscribed in ink on the
pasted-down verso. Lettered with artist's name, address and details: 'Natural
history, portraits, &c:'
According to the ODNB, Sowerby was gifted his Lambeth house
by his father-in-law on his marriage in 1786, suggesting this card, acquired by
Banks in 1786, was made that year.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_D-2-3223
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Q-3-107
........................
Another de Carle Jug formerly with Sotheby's.
Lot 240
Height 22.3 cms.
Dated 1783 within a cartouche of wheat and barley, signed R. B. De Carle, Fect. on a simulated metal strap across the base of the handle, incised Lambeth underneath the base
...................
Another de Carle Jug with BBR Auctions.
Dated 1781 with initials DRA.
5.3" tall.
Lot 376 - 15 Feb. 2005
................................
The de Carle family some notes -
Robert Brettingham de Carle 1748 - 1791.
John de Carle 1750-1828.
Benjamin de Carle 1788-1864.
Robert de Carle II 1761-1837.
Robert de Carle III 1785-1829.
Mary de Carle 1792-1866.
Robert de Carle IV fl 1795-1842.
The (Huguenot?) de Carle family worked principally in Norwich though they, or perhaps another branch of the family, also ran workshops elsewhere in East Anglia.
Robert Brettingham, John and Robert II were brothers; John was the father of Benjamin, Robert II was the father of Robert III and the latter married Mary de Carle, née Lock.
Robert IV’s kinship to the other family
members is not clear, but he practiced in Bury St Edmunds and was at some stage
in partnership with Benjamin.
..............................................
of Further Interest -
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