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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
