Handel in Bronze - by or after Roubiliac

Handel in Bronze - 

by or after Louis Francois Roubiliac.

I have written extensively about the portrait statuary of Handel by Roubiliac but have only touched briefly on the bronzes.

Here is my first attempt to make up for this.

This post was inspired by an e mail from Professor Doctor Hans Joachim Marx of the University of Hamburg regarding the portrait busts and reliefs of Handel by Roubiliac.

For the Roubiliac terracotta relief of Handel at the V & A see my blog post - 

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-roubiliac-terracotta-relief-of.html

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Selected Bibliography -

J. M. Coopersmith, 'A List of Portraits, Sculptures, etc., of George Friedrich Händel' in Music & Letters Vol. 13, No. 2 (Apr., 1932), pp. 156-167

Sir John Soane's Museum Handbook, 10th edition, 1920, pp.68-69.

J.V.G. Mallet, 'Some portrait medallions by Roubiliac', Burlington Magazine, CIV, 1962, 

National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 197.

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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

The sale catalogue under the heading Sundries in Plaster notes -

Lot 22; Five Medals of Handell, SAir 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.

Lot 24; Four  Medals of Handell, Mr Garrick, Sir Isaac Newton Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones and a laughing boy.

Lot 25; Five Medals of Handell, Sir Isaac Neton, Oliver Cromwell, Inigo Jones and a laughing boy.

Lot 27; a mixed lot that mentions a medal of Dr Middleton.

Under the heading Bronzes etc.

Lot 92; A basso relievo of Inigo Jones and Oliver Cromwell.

Lot 93; Three ditto of Mr Handell, Sir Isaac Newton and Mr Pope.

These three were probably 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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George Frederick Handel

Louis Francois Roubiliac

Terracotta.

28.6 cms diam.

Purchased in 1961 from London Art Trade.

Peel and Humphris.

Photograph by the Author.

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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

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The Miniature Bronze Bust of Handel.

28cms (inc. socle)

Lot 163, 14 July 2010.

Sotheby's Works of Art Sale.

So far this appears to be a unique miniature bronze bust by Roubiliac.

It has not been previously published except for Sotheby's sparse catalogue entries

There is little doubt in my mind that this little bronze bust is the creation of Louis Francois Roubiliac and and an important addition to the corpus of his works.

Roubiliac  worked in bronze sporadically specifically three busts of Lord Chesterfield, one of Alexander Pope.

Attributed to the workshop of Louis-François Roubiliac (1695-1772), English, mid-18th century

BUST OF GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL

bronze, on a porphyry socle.

Sold £2,500 (be aware that the value of your investment can go up or down!)

Sotheby's catalogue entry

Mallet (op.cit.) notes three other bronze reliefs of Handel. That Roubiliac produced portrait high reliefs is proven by a signed and dated inscription on a bust of David Garrick, now in the Garrick Club and by the inclusion of three portrait high reliefs of Newton, Handel and Pope in the sale of his studio held 12-14 May 1762. A different version of the portrait of Handel in terracotta, illustrated by Mallet, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Literature -

J.V.G. Mallet, `Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac', Burlington Magazine, April 1962, pp.153-158; 

K. A. Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis François Roubiliac, Oxford, 1928, p.224; 

Rococo, Art and Design in Hogarth's England, exh. cat. Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1984, S45

Height overall: 28cm. 11in.

Provenance - previously sold - Lot 54, Sothebys 16 April 2002.(see below).

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This is the same bust as that above without the added socle.

Lot 54, Sothebys 16 April 2002.

Sold £6572.

My policy is to not normally publish the prices of objects featured in my blogs as the price has no relevance to its history or artistic merit - in this example it amuses me to point out that it is a case of "less is more" given the catalogue entries.

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They say - Lead glazed earthenware Staffordshire

22cms

Victoria and Albert Museum.

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148965/handel-bust-unknown/

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George Frederick Handel.

Pearlware (lead glazed Earthenware)

23.5 cms

Ralph Wood (1748 - 95).

c. 1782 - 95.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

https://www.mfah.org/art/detail/13379

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Handel

Roubiliac

Plaster Relief 

26 x 23 inches. 

The plaster relief of Handel at the Soane Museum, Lincolns Inn Fields, London since before 1837

Although there is no concrete evidence, this has been I believe fairly safely ascribed to Roubiliac.

This fine relief of Handel in contemporary dress appear to be based on the facial features of the portrait bust of Handel by Roubiliac at Gloucester cathedral, although the contemporary dress here is quite different.

For my blog entry see -

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/04/plaster-relief-of-handel-at-soane-museum.html

For the Soane Museum Collection website entry see -

http://collections.soane.org/object-m280

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Conyers Middleton

Louis Francois Roubiliac,

Bronze Relief

Poor photographs taken under difficult circumstances.

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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.

Alexander Pope

Bronze relief attrib. to Roubiliac - 23.75 x 21.25 inches (60.3 x 54 cm).

They suggest c. 1755. 

Yale Centre for British Art.

For the bronze bust of Pope sold by Sotheby's London 6 July 2007 see - 

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2007/european-sculpture-works-of-art-l07231/lot.136.html

K.Esdaile, The Life and Works of Louis Francois Roubiliac, London, 1928.

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

Anonymous Marble Relief.

no size given.

I include this marble relief because I had not been aware of it until recently.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O313295/relief-alexander-pope/

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David Garrick 

Gilded Bronze relief.

Height: 18.5cm

Width: 15.5cm

Depth: 6cm

Inscribed -

DAVID GARRICK. Arm, / L. F.Roubiliac Sct. ad Vivum / 1758 (verso); 

Presented to the Garrick Club, by Peter Norton. Esqr.”, in cream paint on wooden label loosely attached to bottom of frame. Presented to the club by Peter Norton in 1833.

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. 

Mallet discusses five other bronze busts by Roubiliac similar to S0015. They depict Alexander Pope, Conyers Middleton, and George Frederick Handel (3 versions).

Text and Photograph above, copied from the Garrick Club website see -

http://garrick.ssl.co.uk/object-s0015

Another image of the Garrick Club Bronze relief.

Kindly supplied by Marcus Risdall, Curator of the Garrick Club Collection in 2015.

see my blog entry - 

http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/david-garrick-after-gainsborough-with.html

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The Bronze Reliefs of Oliver Cromwell

There are at least 4 version of this relief

Currently I am doubtful if any of them are related to Roubiliac.

Oliver Cromwell

after Roubiliac ?

Very fine bronze relief.

122 x 96 mm

Lot 1587 - 15 - 18th September 2015.

This image from the website of Dix Noonan auctioneers

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=1212&lot=1587

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Oliver Cromwell

with the prominent wart on his left (proper) cheek.

after Roubiliac?

Bronze relief.

Height 16 cms.

The quality of this relief is much below that of the other reliefs illustrated here.

John Mallet in the article ''Some Portrait Medallions by Roubiliac'', Burlington Magazine, April 1962, pl.26, illustrates the full face terracotta medallion of Cromwell and also four slightly larger bronze medallions of Pope, Middleton, Handel and Garrick which, although full-face, are of a very similar style to this portrait. Whilst the catalogue entries are brief and sizes never given, Mr.Mallet also refers to another entry in the second day''s sale under the heading ''Bronzes etc.'', where no.92 reads ''A basso relievo of Inigo Jones and Oliver Cromwell.''

Image and text from the website of dealer Philip Mould - Historical Portraits.

http://www.historicalportraits.com/Gallery.asp?Page=Item&ItemID=207&Desc=Oliver-Cromwell-|-Louis-Francois--Roubiliac,-After-

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Another related Bronze relief of Oliver Cromwell.

Height 22 cms.

Sold Lot 875, 21 October, 2015.

Mealy's auctioneers.

Castlecomer, Ireland.

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For an interesting posting on Handel see -

http://www.boughtonhouse.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Handel-A0-All-Panels_lower-res.pdf

William and Edward Peyto (Peto) by Nicholas Stone

William Peto and Edward Peto and their wives

Monuments in Chesterton Church
Warwickshire

Engraving by Wenceslas Hollar

The west monument is to Edward Peyto 1643 and Elizabeth (Newton) his wife. Their white marble busts are set on a pedestal flanked by shafts of dark marble with white Corinthian capitals and bases supporting an entablature and pediment with an achievement of arms. 

In the floor is an inscribed slab to Edward Peyto 1658.

Against the north wall is the monument of William Peyto, 1619, and Eleanor (Aston) his wife, 1636, with their white marble busts on a pedestal set within a round-headed recess that is flanked by pilasters below a small curved pediment.

This is surmounted by a larger pediment on which is an achievement of the Peyto arms. This monument was executed by Nicholas Stone in 1639 at a cost of £150.

John Vanderstein at Queen's College, Oxford, Part 2. Oxford Physic Garden.

John Vanderstein at Queen's College, Oxford, 

Part 2. 

Oxford Physic Garden.

For an excellent overview of the Physic Garden in the 17th Century see - 

https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/30/1/1/3862786

The Oxford Physic Garden, formally established in 1621, was secured through a benefaction of £5000 to the university made by Henry Danvers (1573–1644) First Earl of Danbv, although the university had accepted the need for a ‘Garden for Physical Simples’ more than a year earlier.

Wiltshire-born, Oxford-educated Danvers, was a soldier, landowner and courtier to King Charles I.

A field outside the city walls, the land was formerly used as a Jewish cemetery. The Jews were expelled from Oxford in 1290. Four thousand loads of “mucke and dunge” were needed to raise the land above the Cherwell flood-plain. 

The walls were to be as “well fair and sufficient as All Soules College walls, Magdalen Colledge Tower, or any of the fairest buildings in Oxford both for truth and beauty”,
 

The land was rented from Magdalen College, which was outside the city wall, close to the River Cherwell. The walls and gates, completed by 1633, cost Danvers more than £5,000. The multipurpose garden wall, made of local limestone, defined the garden’s limits and separated Danvers’s gift from the rest of Oxford. The wall’s great scale emphasized the university’s prestige, whilst at the same time protecting the enclosed area from unwelcome incursions. 

Besides thephysical protection, the wall had horticultural value as a windbreak and heat trap, helping tender plants grow and choice fruits ripen. In 1670, a ‘Plantarum conditorium hyemale’, for evergreens such as myrtles and citruses, was built adjacent to the Physic Garden. Eventually, this substantial building was converted to a herbarium, library and accommodation for the professor.

Notes above adapted from - https://academic.oup.com/jhc/article/30/1/1/3862786

The chief entrance was the northern gateway, embellished with statues of Charles I and Charles II, (fn. 6) and with a bust of Danby over the centre. It is one of the earliest structures in Oxford using the classical style of architecture.

Inigo Jones has been credited with the design for the gateway, but there is no documentary evidence to support this attribution and there is a statement to the contrary in Charles Stoakes's list of works by his uncle, or grand-uncle, Nicholas Stone: 'The Curious Phisicke Garden hee desined & made the Entrances of Stone att Oxford now to be seene.' 

That Nicholas Stone was the builder of all three gateways is clear from an entry in his diary: 'In 1631 Agreed with the Right Hon. Lord Earell of Danby for to mak 3 ston gattes in to the phiseck garden Oxford and to desine a new Hows for him at Corenbury in Oxfordsheer.' 

W. L. Spiers, The Note Book and Account Book of Nicholas Stone (Walpole Society), 137. The inclusion of the Banqueting Room at Whitehall and other works in the list possibly throws doubt upon its value; but Stoakes may have meant only that Stone was a contractor on such buildings, and he probably ought not to be understood as crediting his uncle with the design unless he expressly says so.

Map of Oxford.

First State.

Engraving.

by Wenceslas Hollar.

from the Wenceslas Hollar Digital Collection.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library - University of Toronto.

Engraving from David Loggan’s Oxonia illustrata (1675).

This engraving doesn't show the statues or bust in the niches of the main gate.

The bust of Danby and statues of Charles I and Charles II by Vanderstein have not yet been added.

 Comparison with the Eight full length statues on the West front of Queens College Library is instructive.

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Illustrations above  from - Five bookes of architecture: translated out of Italian into Dutch and out of Dutch into English.

by Serlio, Sebastiano.

Publication date 1611.

Publisher Robert Peake.

The Danby Gate building has the inscription on the Northern front -

GLORIÆ DEI OPT. MAX. HONORI CAROLI REGIS IN VSVM ACAD. & REIPVB.

HENRICVS COMES DANBY D.D. MDCXXXII.

see -

https://www.cabinet.ox.ac.uk/danby-gate-botanical-garden-1632-1633#/media=839

The Danby Gate building has distinct similarities with the Duke of Buckingham's York House Water Gate. York House was demolished in 1675. It is now marooned in the Embankment Gardens, a park between the Strand and the Embankment.

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For the statues see

 "Best Beloved of Kings", The Iconography of King Charles II, Katherine Gibson, 1997 Oxford. 

Oxford, V - C’s Accts;  King Charles I, King Charles II, Earl of Danby. £26 10s.

Not yet consulted

Frontispiece from Vertumnus. An Epistle to Mr. Jacob Bobart, Botany Professor to the University of Oxford, and Keeper of the Physick-Garden

Oxford, 1713.

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Charles II.

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Charles I

John Vanderstein

Charles I.

John Vanderstein. 

One of the eight stone statues on the west front of the Library at Queen's College, Oxford.

All photographs here by the author.

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This engraving has been cut from the Oxford Almanac of 1766.

Height: 341 millimetres (cut)

Width: 455 millimetres

Lettered below image with production detail: "S. Wale del. / B. Green sc."

View of the Physic Gardens in Oxford, greenhouses on either side of a gateway in the centre, behind it the Professor's house, library and tower of Magdalen College; below, a plan of the garden and view of the north side of the gateway.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

low res image - British Museum.



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19th Century engraving.
Undated

420 x 310 mm.

Image courtesy Oxford Museum of the History of Science.

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John Vanderstein at Queen's College, Oxford, Part 1. Overview.

John Vanderstein (Van Der Stein, Vanderstaine) 

fl. 1678 -1700.

at Queen's College, Oxford.

and other works. 

Part 1.

Some rough notes - the quoted sources here need to be checked :-

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I am very much indebted to Dr Graeme Salmon, Curator of Pictures at Queen's College, Oxford for making me welcome at Queens and for making this work possible.

This blog entry is part of a much larger work investigating and recording the 17th and 18th Century portrait sculpture at Oxford. This project was suggested to me by Dana Josephson of the Bodleian Library, Oxford who is currently in the process of cataloguing the portraits at the Bodleian and to whom I extend my heart felt thanks.

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A brief biography of John Vanderstein.

In the Account Books at Queen’s College Oxford he signs his name as Joannes Vander Stein.

On 16 November 1678 a licence was granted for John Vanderstaine to be employed in the Kings service at Windsor Castle under the architect Hugh May.

1678 - ‘For drawing and making of several designs, models and figures in clay for ye pedestall under His Majesty’s statue and for carving ye stone eagles that the brasse dyall is set upon’ National Archives - A01/2478/271

On 21 May 1679 The Privy Council granted him a further permit allowing him to "remaine here wth out molestation together with John Oastes (John van Nost I) and Arnold Luellan (Arnold Quellin)" and"to go freely about the cities of London and Westminster, until further orders (The National Archives Domestic Entry Book, Car II, Vol LI, SP44/51 fol 77-79).

Three days later Hugh May (1621 - 1684) certified that Vanderstein was one of the men employed at Windsor Castle (National Archives, Privey Council Register, PC, 2/68), where he worked on the elaborate royal throne, cutting slaves, a figure of Justice and two of Fame, as well as ‘three pieces of Trophies’ (Windsor Castle an Architectural History, John Hope, Country Life  1913, 318) (3).

A Payment of  £191 10s for above works - Biog Dict Sculptors 2009 - ref. Hope and Gunnis. (check these refs! to what and whom do they refer?)

http://liberty.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/works/recordlist.php?-action=find&-sortfieldone=List+Number&-sortorderone=ascend&sculptor_id=2786

The permit of 24 May 1679 refers to the services of the mural painter Antonio  Verrio, as well as noting Vanderstaine, Laurens Vandermuelen, Anthony Verhuke and Arnold Quellin - the last three described as 'servants to Grinling Gibbons, the Carver'

He also provided a pedestal for the King’s statue and sundry other work at Windsor (4).

Does this refer to the base of the equestrian statue of Charles II?

In 1684 - 5 he was in Oxford. ‘Mr Vanderstene Carver’ was paid £26 10s for unidentified work at the Physick Garden, and in the following year he was paid a further £7 12s for ‘cutting the Earl of Danby’s Statue, and for other Worke at the Physick Garden’ (Oxford, V-C’s Accts, Archive WP /21/5 unfol) see Gibson.

In c. 1693 he received £8 for models of classical philosophers and in 1694 a payment for ‘fretwork in the New Library’at Queen's College, Oxford .Gunnis 

In 1696 he was also paid for carving the eight statues on the west front of the building, and for ‘two eagles and eight key-stones’. Gunnis.

Literary References:

 Windsor Castle an architectural History, John Hope, Country Life Magazine, 1913. 

Grinling Gibbons his work as a Carver, David Green, 1964 (1), 54, 82-3, 84;

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Dictionary of British Sculptors, Rupert Gunnis, 1968, 407; 

1696 - Two Eagles and Eight Keystones, quoting Queen’s Coll, Oxford archives (entry untraced).

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Sculpture in Britain, Margaret Whinney 1988, 443 n 34, 445 n 67; 

The Works of Grinling Gibbons, Geoffrey Beard. 1989 (2), 51-2, 58.

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Katherine Gibson 1997 "Best Beloved of Kings", The Iconography of King Charles II,: Oxford Physic Garden;  - Oxford, V - C’s Accts;  King Charles I, King Charles II, Earl of Danby. £26 10s.

Notes above adapted from A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain... Yale 2009.

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Hugh May (1621 - 84).

Hugh May
Samuel Cooper
Royal Collection

The most important person mentioned above is the architect Hugh May. It my suspicion that May was pivotal in the arrival of the various Dutch sculptors who worked with Grinling Gibbons (1648 - 1721) including Arnold Quellin (1653 - 86) and John van Nost I.

Hugh May was the seventh son of John May of Rawmere, in Mid Lavant, West Sussex, by his wife, Elizabeth Hill, and was baptised on 2 October 1621. He was a first cousin of Baptist May, Charles II's Keeper of the Privy Purse. 

As a member of a Royalist family, Hugh May spent the years of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth in the service of the Duke of Buckingham. May arranged the transport of artworks from the Duke's York House to Holland, where the Duke was in exile. where he was exposed to the new classical style of architecture exemplified by the works of Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post. 

May was a friend of the painter Peter Lely, and in 1656 the two of them travelled to Charles II's court in exile.  Besides Lely, May's circle included Samuel Pepys, who called May a "very ingenious man", Roger North and John Evelyn, whom May assisted in translating Roland Fréart's Parallel of Architecture.

At the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 (he was crowned on 23 April 1661), May was rewarded for his loyalty by being appointed Paymaster of the King's Works on 29 June 1660. His architectural commissions came from Court acquaintances, and his first completed work was Eltham Lodge, Kent (1663–1664), for Sir John Shaw, 1st Baronet. Built in brick, with a stone pediment and Ionic pilasters, the double-pile house reflected Dutch influence. 

Cornbury House, Oxfordshire (1663–1668), was built in a similar style, but with a Corinthian pediment, for Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. May's most prominent house was Berkeley House, on Piccadilly, London (1664–1666, demolished 1733), for Lord Berkeley. It was again in the same style, but with the addition of quadrant colonnades, a feature derived from Palladio, and which was again much imitated. 

At Cassiobury, Hertfordshire (1674, demolished 1922), May added wings to the home of the Earl of Essex, and redesigned some of the interiors, giving the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons his first major commission. 

It is possible that May was the architect of the first Burlington House, for Sir John Denham, and he certainly advised the Earl of Burlington after he purchased the house in 1667. He was also involved in construction or alterations at Chilton Lodge, Berkshire (1666, rebuilt), Holme Lacy, Herefordshire (1673–1674), and Moor Park, Hertfordshire (1679–1684, rebuilt).

In June 1668, May was promoted to Comptroller of the King's Works, and was also appointed Clerk to the Recognizances, an office of the Court of Common Pleas. 

In November 1673, he was further appointed Comptroller of the Works at Windsor Castle, where, from 1675, he remodelled the upper ward, adding to the apartments of Queen Catherine of Braganza, and built St George's Hall and the Royal Chapel.  

Working with Grinling Gibbons, and the painter Antonio Verrio, May created a series of baroque interiors, the grandest of which, St George's Hall, served as a model for Wren's Great Hall at Greenwich Palace. The hall was demolished in 1826

for a very good potted biography see - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_May


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For the first look at the works of Vanderstein and the interior plasterwork at Queen's College Library, Oxford see the excellent work by Veronika Vernier of Queens College Oxford the Article in :-

Insight: Queen's College Library Journal, Issue 3. Michaelmas Term, 2013.

The Plaster Ceiling and its Masters at The Queen’s College Library (1692-1756), by Veronika Vernier available on line at -

https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/sites/www.queens.ox.ac.uk/files/Insight2013.pdf

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The statues in the niches on the west front of the library of Queens College, Oxford:

From North to South.

Queen Henrietta Maria (1609 - 69) Queen consort of Charles I. She requested the King to grant advowsons to Fellows of Queen's - allowing them to take up a position in a parish church and also to marry!

Sir Joseph Williamson, (1633 - 1701), Fellow of Queen's College. Founder of the Royal Society.

Bishop Thomas Barlow, (1601 - 1691). Fellow of Queen's College, Bishop of Lincoln.

Archbishop Thomas Lamplugh, (1615 - 91). Fellow of Queen's College, Archbishop of York.

Robert Eglesfield, (c 1295 - 1349). Founder of Queen's College in 1341.

Edward III, (1312 - 77).

Queen Philippa.(1314 - 69). Queen Consort of Edward III.

Charles I; 

The cartouche on the frieze on the East Front bears the arms of Thomas Smith, Bishop of Carlisle, 1684–1702, and the tympanum has a group representing Queen Philippa with attendant amorini.

Queen's College.

Mid 17th Century.

Prior to the rebuilding.

Image courtesy Welcome Collection.

The West front of Queens College Library

Michael Burghers

Engraving
134 x 434 mm.

Image: British Museum

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Oxford Almanac 

1727

Bird's Eye view of Queen's College Oxford from the South

George Vertue

Engraving.

Image: British Museum

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From Oxford Almanac 1762

346 x 448 mm.

British Museum

Queen's College, with the cupola and main building in the background in the centre, with the founder John Michael of Richmond standing alone to right gesturing to a plan which he holds in left hand, and Sir Joseph Williamson pointing out something on a plan held by Dr Lancaster with 

Bishop Barlow and the provost Dr Halton, holding an elevation of the library, beside them, in left foreground next to an archway and pillar draped in an embroidered cloth. 

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Photograph by the author.


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The East Front of the Library at Queen's College, Oxford.

Michael Burghers (1653-1727).

Burghers was born in Amsterdam, he emigrated to England soon after 1672. He worked in Oxford, initially as Loggan's assistant from 1673, and was appointed University engraver after Loggan's death in 1692.

Engraving 372 x 529 mm.

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West side of South Court Queens College.

Note statue on the left on the High Street front.

Image courtesy the fantastic Sanders of Oxford.

https://www.sandersofoxford.com/shop/product/the-west-side-of-the-south-court-are%C5%93-aust-latus-occidentale/

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William Lancaster

Provost of Queens College Oxford

After Thomas Murray

Engraving by George Vertue 

37 x 25.5 cms.

1718.

National Portrait Gallery.

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The Library at Queens College between 1850 and 1880.

Photograph from -

https://www.lassco.co.uk/one-of-a-series-of-english-oak-library-bookcases

For the Library refurbishment see -

https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/sites/www.queens.ox.ac.uk/files/Insight2014compressed.pdf

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