Bust of Henry Hatley (d. 1716).

 

An Aide Memoire.

Bust of Henry Hatley (died 1716).

Erected by his son George Hatley (d. 1742).

The bust here is very close to that of Alexander Pope by Peter Scheemakers of c. 1740. but without the waistcoat now at the Yale Centre for British Art. New Haven, Conn. USA.

Perhaps mid / late 1730's.

Over the South doorway of St Mary's Church Hunton, nr Maidstone, Kent.

Image courtesy John Vigor - facebook page historic churches.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10238417573916350&set=g.584528982020638

The bust of Henry Hatley is not mentioned in the Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors.... pub. Yale, 2009.

Possibly by Peter Scheemakers??

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For Comparison

The Marble Bust of Alexander Pope.

Peter Scheemakers.

c.1740.

Ingrid Roscoe in Scheemakers - Walpole Society Journal, 1998 / 99, suggests this was the bust in the library in the collection of Dr Richard Meade, at 49 Great Ormond St. 

Sold Auction Sale - 11 March 1755, Lot 63, bought by General Campbell.

Scheemakers first known set of library busts was for Richard Mead, who ordered heads of Shakespeare, Milton and Pope for his home in Great Ormond Street, London around 1734.

with London dealer Cyril Humphris in 1972. Height 24".

Notes. A cast of a bust of Pope was sold in Scheemakers sale in 10 March 1756, Lot 21.

 A life size stone bust is in the Temple of English Worthies at Stowe - a part payment made to Scheemakers in Stowe Accounts 13 Dec. 1737 for an unspecified bust.

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:1474

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/alexander-pope-16881744-337743

see also my previous post for further versions of the busts of Pope

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014_01_19_archive.html

The Coade Stone Bust of Caracalla, dated 1792. revisited, updated and improved.

 

The Coade Bust of Caracalla.

Inscribed 1792.

60 x 49 cm (23 ½ x 19 ¼ in.).

https://www.tomasso.art/artworkdetail/885959/20448/12-coade-caracalla

I was first made aware of this bust in early January this year.

.............

Since my previous posts of January 26 and February 16 of this year I have discovered that the bust is currently with the dealers Tomasso Brothers of London and Leeds - here are the links - 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/01/coadestone-bust-of-caracalla-indented.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/02/the-bust-of-caracalla-at-foundling.html

The intention of this post is to illustrate the history of the reproduction of the bust of Caracalla in England in the 18th and into the 19th Centuries.

The busts of Marcus Aurelius share a similar history.

From the importing of the Bartolemeo Cavaceppi copy of the ancient bust of Caracalla from Rome by Matthew Brettingham the younger - the reproduction of the bust by Roubiliac, and its further reproduction by Harris of the Strand and later 18th Century versions by Coade 1792 and the mid19th century terracotta by Blashfield.

The genesis of these posts was a conversation with Lars Tharp regarding the surprising lack of any works by Roubiliac at the Foundling Hospital given his links with the Foundling and the St Martin's Lane Academy.

This dovetailed neatly with researches into the use of variations of the socle used uniquely by Roubiliac in the mid 18th century until his death in 1762 which was inspired by conversations with Dino Tomasso which led to researches into a marble bust of Laocoon now firmly attributed to Roubiliac (see the illustration below).

This form of socle was continued by various manufacturers of porcelaine, terracotta, Coade Stone and glazed earthenware into the 19th century.

A squatter version of this type of socle also appears on the Coade stone busts of Nelson and Raleigh on the Orangery at Bicton, Devon and the bust of John Wesley ( Wesley Chapel, Broadmead, Bristol).

As yet nobody seems to have made the link between the plaster busts of Caracalla and Marcus Aurelius at the Foundling Hospital and the Roubiliac versions (as seen in the posthumous contents of the Roubiliac workshop Langford's 4 Day sale catalogue of May 1762) and the Holkham Busts.

I will take the liberty to publish the Tomasso brothers excellent photographs here.

.......................

The Bust of Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester

Engraving by WC Edwards (1777 - 1855) after Roubiliac.

c. 1820.

The Engraving included here to illustrate the use of the squat version of the Roubiliac late type socle.

This Roubiliac plaster bust seems to have disappeared but the Francis Chantry copy of the bust is still at Holkham.

The BM say the bust pictured is by Francis Chantry after Roubiliac, but the socle suggests to me that this might be an engraving of the original Roubiliac bust from the Roubiliac Sale - Day 2. Lot 21. Plaster Bust and copied by Chantry.

The Marble bust of Lord Leicester (in Roman dress) at Holkham is a copy by Chantry which uses a turned socle.

Roubiliac was responsible for the busts of Lord Leicester (with wig) and his wife Ladfy Margaret Tufton on the monument in the church at Tiitlleshall, Norfolk.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/05/the-tittleshall-monument-with-marble.html

W C Edwards was known as a silhouettist from an entry in Jackson’s ‘Dictionary’. This records him as the artist and engraver of a print silhouette depicting Sir Thomas William Coke of Holkham

Edwards was a line engraver by trade, he was based in Norfolk in the early 19th century. The silhouette print is inscribed “From a Drawing made at Holkham by W. C. Edwards, in 1824”

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0822-1429

The Busts of Thomas Coke, Lord Leicester at the the Roubiliac Sale.

Day 1. Lot 87. Bust unfinish'd of Marble.

Day 2. Lot 21. Plaster Bust, Lot 27.

Day 3. Lot 90. A whole length of the Earl of Leicester in his robes plaster.(see image below)

Day 4. Lot. 55. Mould in plaister The Earl of Leicester in modern dress. 

Lot 56. Ditto Mould - Earl of Leicester in Roman dress.

Lot 57. A small figure ditto.

For good measure here depicted below is the drawing of the bust of Lord Leicester attributed to Joseph  Nollekens at the posthumous Roubiliac sale of May 1762 again nb the use of the late type socle.

...................

of tangential interest.

The Plaster Bust of  Thomas Coke, Lord Leicester.

In the Marble Hall at Holkham, Norfolk.

Louis Francois Roubiliac.

Note the use of the late type Roubiliac Socle.

The marble version along with that of his wife by Roubiliac were put up on the Coke monument at Tittleshall Church, Norfolk.

Roubiliac uses the same form of the outer drapery on this bust as his busts of Charles I at the Courtauld Institute Gallery at Somerset House and the Fordham Marble bust of Shakespeare now in the Folger Library, Washington DC. USA. These three busts all use the same type of Roubiliac late type socle.

It is worth repeating here that the Roubiliac marble busts of Princess Amelia (with the late type socle), and of Elizabeth Fitzwilliam, Countess of Pembroke at Wilton house share the same dress.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-marble-bust-of-princess-amelia.html

For more on the Roubiliac socles see - 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/04/a-bust-of-unidentified-man-as-trajan-by.html

........................

The Busts of Caracalla and Marcus Aurelius at Holkham, Norfolk.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/two-plaster-busts-attributed-to.html

This bust of Caracalla and the Marcus Aurelius were almost certainly a product of the Cavaceppi workshop in Rome although they lack the eared support on the socle frequently used by him.

Caracalla was bought in Rome in 1749 by Matthew Brettingham and sold to Lord Leicester for £30.

 His account book notes carriage and custom house fees for a "modern coppye of ye" bust of Caracalla in November 1747.

 Brettingham, who kept an account book when he was in Rome, listing thirteen statues and twenty-one busts sent to Holkham.

 see - “Matthew Brettingham’s Rome Account Book 1747-1754,” Walpole Society 49 (1983):

The Marble bust of Marcus Aurelius also at Holkham.

there are two very close versions of this bust in the Capitoline Museum, Rome

Inv nos 279 and 450.

....................

A plaster bust of the young Marcus Arelius (Commodus) was also included in the recent attic sale from Holkham by Sworders.

It is not a version of the marble still at Holkham. It has different hair very noticable on the fringe and more voluminous dress with an undershirt.

https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-36---a-group-of-roman-carved-marble-fragments/?lot=503050&sd=1

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The Seaton Delaval plaster bust of Marcus Aurelius formerly at Melton Constable.

Workshop of Roubiliac.

Note the use of the late type Roubiliac socle

In the posthumous Roubiliac sale of  13 May 1762  under the heading of  Antique busts etc in plaister - Lot 46, Marcus Aurelius.

For an essay on the subject of this plaster bust at Seaton Delaval and another perhaps of Venus or Aphrodite at Saltram House, Devon see

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/two-plaster-busts-attributed-to.html

Another plaster bust of Commodus or the young Marcus Aurelius is at Burton Constable which has slightly different hair, a fuller body and the typical socle used by John Cheere with the slightly convex, recessed panelled front.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/two-plaster-busts-attributed-to.html

......................

The Foundling Hospital Plaster Bust of Caracalla.

Here attributed to the workshop of Louis Francois Roubiliac (d. 1762) in St Martin's Lane.

For a fairly in depth look at these busts see my previous post-

 https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/plaster-busts-at-foundling-hospital.html

The posthumous Roubiliac Sale May 1762

  Under the heading Antique busts etc in Plaster  -14 busts in all - lots 36 - 49.

  Lot 46 was Marcus Aurelius and Lot 49 was a bust of Caracalla.

 

Esdaile ... Roubiliac 1929 .... states that a number of Artists at a meeting at the Turks Head on 7 December 1760, had agreed to appear on the 5 November in the following year ...........among those signing the paper recording the promise were Joshua Reynolds, Wilson and Roubiliac.......

 

Esdaile goes on to say that the busts were presented on the same day and that they bore his signature? and the date 7 November 1760. She had contacted the secretary Mr RW Nichols who had had the busts taken down and inspected but stated that any inscription had been obscured by the repeated coats of paint - (not unusual given that it was easier to repaint this type of object rather than laboriously clean them - a fate of many plaster objects and their surroundings from the 18th century). (My Italics).

 

In the ambiguous footnote she says " I have most unfortunately omitted to give my authority - an 18th century one - for my note: Foundling Hospital. Plaster Busts of M Aurelius and Caracalla L.F.R. Dec 7th 1760".

She then states that "The historian of the Foundling Hospital however states that the busts were presented by Richard Dalton (Print seller / art dealer) - in 1754? but although this would exclude Roubiliac from the list of donors of works of art to the Hospital they may well have been his work. (this does not exclude John Cheere either) my italics! Certainly versions of these two busts appeared in his posthumous sale.

Mrs Esdailes work was the first in depth work on Roubiliac until Malcolm Baker's and David Bindmans recent works the only book on the works of Roubiliac.

Malcolm Baker and David Bindman published Roubiliac and the 18th Century Monument, pub.Yale 1995. but as the title suggests concentrates on his monuments. 

Edsaile is not entirely to be trusted and attributions etc need to be checked against modern researches.

........................

The Foundling Hospital Plaster Bust of Marcus Aurelius.

Just to confuse issues this bust is quite different from the Cavaceppi type bust. illustrated above

He is depicted looking to his left (proper) and has fringes on his tunic (left hand side proper) which do not appear on the other versions illustrated here.

The dress here is closest to an ancient marble bust of a young but bearded Marcus Aurelius in the Uffizi in Florence

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The Blashfield Terracotta Bust of Caracalla.

Mid 19th Century.

John Marriot Blashfield (1811 - 82).

Height: 70cm, 27 1/2″ - Width: 55cm, 21 2/3″.

The height of the bust without the socle is 51 cms.

It has been claimed in the past that Blashfield had obtained moulds from Coade but the dates of the disposal of the objects from the Coade manufactory in 1843 .

Blashfield appears to have commenced manufacture of terracotta with James George Bubb (1781 - 1861) as an assistant in 1839 at Canford in Dorset. Bubb had previously worked as a sculptor with Messrs Coade.

I will attempt to obtain better photographs and details of any marks in due course.

This terracotta bust is with the excellent dealers Jamb of the Pimlico Road, London in September 2025.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1456802126448472&set=pb.100063560954873.-2207520000&type=3

https://www.jamb.co.uk/

For a reasonable overview of the history of Messrs Blashfield and terracotta see -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marriott_Blashfield

.....................

The Tomasso Brothers Marble Bust of Laocoon.

Attributed to Roubiliac.

Note the use of the less squat version of the form of the Roubiliac late type socle used here.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/05/marble-bust-of-laocoon.html

............................

The Final Disposal of the Contents of the Coade Manufactory at Lambeth in 1843.

by Rushworth and Jarvis.

.....................................

For Coade Blashfield etc. see Papers Read at the Royal Institute of British Architects - Page 262 - 1867.

.....................

For more on the  history of Blashfield and his relationship with Mintons see -

https://www.academia.edu/43667339/John_Marriott_Blashfield_1811_1882_A_neglected_pioneer_of_decorated_ceramic_floor_tiles

Frances Vandewall and her mother Mary Ingram. A Portrait by Benjamin West of John Williams of Panthowell and some more Vandewall family portraits.

The enormously rich Quaker Vandewall / Neate family of Greenwich and Lindsey House, Lincolns Inn Fields have appeared several times in the blog.

Bonham's Old Master Paintings 25 September – 2 October 2024 - Lots 212 and 213.

Portrait of Frances Vandewall, née Ingram, later Mrs George Augustus Killigrew, 

and her mother Mary Ingram nee Bellers.

by William Hoare of Bath (near Eye, Suffolk 1707-1792 Bath).

inscribed 'Mrs Vanderwall' (verso).

pastel.

61 x 45.7cm (24 x 18in).

framed: 83 x 67cm.

Literature.

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, no. J.395.1342., ill.

 

The sitter, was the daughter of draper Joseph and Mary Ingram of Cheapside, she married Joseph Vandewall (b.1714) in 1737. Joseph died in 1739 at French Ordinary Court in the hospital of Crutched Friars. 

for much more on Samuel Vandewall and the Vandewall family see

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/02/samuelvandewall-1719-1761-and-his-wife.html

Frances later married Captain George Augustus Killigrew (1717-1757) in 1753.

Frances Vandewall and Captain George Augustus Killigrew obtained a marriage licence on 27 June 1753 in London.

    

Her will was perhaps proved on 4 April 1765 at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. She may be the Frances Killigrew, widow of Argyle Buildings, Middlesex, whose will was proved 4 April 1765 but could also be the Frances Maria Killigrew, widow of St Marylebone whose will was proved 2 May 1753.

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29809/lot/212/william-hoare-of-bath-near-eye-suffolk-1707-1792-bath-portrait-of-frances-vandewall-nee-ingram-later-mrs-george-augustus-killigrew-in-a-blue-dress-and-pearl-necklace-framed-83-x-67cm/

..................................

Mary Ingram (1689 - 17..)

Inscribed 'To Mrs Ingram/ Cheapside/ all paid' (verso).

 William Hoare of Bath (near Eye, Suffolk 1707-1792 Bath).

pastel.

61.1 x 47.8cm (24 1/16 x 18 13/16in).

framed: 82.9 x 66.9cm.

Literature.

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800, online edition, no. J.395.1341, ill

Bonham's Old Master Paintings 25 September – 2 October 2024  Lot 213.

Mary Bellers was the daughter of the social reformer John Bellers cloth merchant proponent of the “Colledge of Industry.”and Frances Fettipace of London.

The sitter was married to Joseph Ingram (d.1741), a Cheapside Linen Draper 25 July 1710. son of William Ingram, salter at the Bull and Mouth  Quaker Meeting Gracechurch Street

........................

In his will, dated 8 March 1741, Joseph Ingram left the Hoxton property and any other real estate to his wife Mary (who was appointed executrix), with an annuity to his sister in law Christabell Ingram (bequeathed originally by his father). 

Bequests to his sons Thomas, Samuel and Robert Ingram and his daughter Frances Vandewall, whose marriage settlement he confirms.'

Date of Death: 21 July 1751 at Coln  St Aldwin, Gloucestershire

 Cause of Death: an inflamation

 Burial: 30 July 1751 at Friends burial ground near Bunhill Fields.

https://wills.qfhs.co.uk/az/wtext/ingram_004.html

.......................................

Highlights of Will of Mary Ingram.

 

£100 to her daughter Frances Vanderwall.

She confirms the marriage settlement made upon her marriage to Joseph Vanderwall, now deceased.

She leaves all her estate at Hoxton to her son Thomas Ingram as well as all the property left her by her father John Bellers in Wilts, Oxfordshire and Berkshire, her properties in Pennsylvania and West New Jersey, and her leasehold estates at Coln Saint Aldwin.

 She leaves £4000 to her son Samuel Ingram.

 She leaves a £10 annuity to Susanna, the widow of Benjamin Clerk, and Christobell Lund, the wife of Benjamin Lund, both being the daughters of her late husband’s brother Robert Ingram.

 She also leaves an annuity of £10 to Ann Tarbox, the wife of Joseph Tarbox of Winchmore Hill.

 She leaves the rest of her estate to her sons Thomas and Samuel Ingram, whom she names as her Executors.

Codicil - She leaves her daughter Frances Vanderwall £800, in addition to the legacy in the will.

Transcript available on line - https://wills.qfhs.co.uk/az/wtext/ingram_005.html

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/29809/lot/213/william-hoare-of-bath-near-eye-suffolk-1707-1792-bath-portrait-of-mary-ingram-nee-bellers-in-a-brown-dress-white-bonnet-and-fichu-framed-829-x-669cm/

......................................

Will of Mary Ingram, Widow of Joseph Ingram of Cheapside, London.

 Will 14 July 1749 with Codicil 18 July 1749   Probate 2 August 1751.

https://wills.qfhs.co.uk/az/wtext/ingram_005.html

................................................

1737. The marriage of Joseph Vandewall (d.1739) who was Samuel Vandewall's older brother (d.1761) to Frances Ingram daughter of Joseph Ingram of Cheapside, Draper, 

Amongst those at the wedding were the apothecary Silvanus Bevan, Joseph Moore, and many of the Ingram family.

 

1739. – 5 Nov. His older brother Joseph (b. 1714) dies of fever at French Ordinary Court. Crutched Friars, He leaves to his dear wife Frances his personal estate and the reversion of an estate at Greenwich “settled on testator” by his father in law Joseph Ingram on his Marriage.

 

1740. Samuel Vandewall inherits Ravensbourne House and the Copperas works at East Greenwich next to the Ravensbourne at Deptford Creek and also property in Peckham, South London from Joseph Moore, his grandfather on his mothers side. The Gentleman’s Magazine in its usual mercenary manner reports the death of Joseph Moore and estate of £30,000, an immense amount of money at the time. See Public Records Office, Kew London, Will of Joseph Moore. Prob 11/705.

........................

The Will of Joseph Vandewall, Merchant of Crutched Friars, City of London.

 The Will dated 2 November 1739, Probate 6 November 1739.

 https://wills.qfhs.co.uk/az/wtext/vandewall_004.html

........................

Samuel Vandewall 

Thomas Hudson.

..........................

Joseph Moore Vandewall (1745 - 1748).

The infant son and only child of Samuel and Martha Vandewall (nee Barrow)..

Joshua Reynolds.

1745. – 26 July - Joseph Moore Vandewall was born at Brabant Court, in the City of London, the child in the portrait by Joshua Reynolds.

1748. – 28 Feb – Joseph Moore Vandewall died of teething.

..............................

Thomas and Charlotte Neate with their Tutor Thomas Needham by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

       Signed and dated Joshua Reynolds pinxit 1748. 

Currently on Display in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

......................

Thomas Neate.

The boy in the Reynolds family portrait.

Son of Harris Neate and Martha Barrow and stepson of Samuel Vandewall.

1791 - 1796. Thomas Neate resided at 13 Lansdown Crescent, Bath (info. from Bath archives. - Bath Loyal Ass. 1792).

 1794. Death of Martha Vandewall at her house in Bath. She was buried at Jordans (Quaker) Meeting House Burial Ground, Buckinghamshire in the vault of Sam.Vandewall.

 1796. Amelia daughter of Thomas Neate described in The monthly Magazine as of Binfield, marries AE Young at Orlingbury, Northants

 1825. Death of Thomas Neate at Binfield Lodge, Berks.

............................

Another Vandewall related portrait by Benjamin West (1738 -1820).

John Williams of Panthowell, Llandegfan, Carmarthen, South Wales.

Oil on canvas, 31 3/4 x 42 1/2 inches (oval)

Signed and dated at lower left: “B. West PINXIT/1766”

In 1766 John Williams married Martha Neate daughter of  Martha Neate (nee Barrow) widow of Harris Neate who after his death married Samuel Vandewall.

The photographs used here from the website of The Schwarz Gallery of Philadelphia.

https://www.schwarzgallery.com/painting/5694/

The house of Panthowell, Trelech a'r Betws, Carmarthenshire, was owned by the Williams family for nearly three centuries. John Williams (d. 1773) was the last of the male line at Panthowell.

 The property passed to his daughter Margarette Vandewall Williams, who married the Rev. William Shippen Willes, of Cirencester, (d. 1822) in 1797; their son, William Willes, inherited the estate.

By 1831, the estate consisted of Panthowell, Panthowell Mill, Crug y denyon and Ffynnon Sais. In 1834 the estate was sold to Lt-Col Thomas Samuel Nicholls (1787-1857), of Tenby, Pembrokeshire.

...........................

Mrs Martha Vandewall.

Benjamin West.

c.1766.

32 x 42 1/2 inches (81.3 x 108 cm).

Gifted to Philidelphia Museum of Art, 2004.

https://www.philamuseum.org/objects/95983

The portrait of Mrs Vandewall by Benjamin West was sold by Sotheby, Lot 138, 3 May 1961, from the collection of W.H.Willes, (a descendant of Martha Neate),

.........................

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania,  1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Staley/von Erffa Benjamin West Archive, 1940-2000. Box 32 -3 - Vandewall here is mis spelled Vanderwall.

.........................

see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/02/samuelvandewall-1719-1761-and-his-wife.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-william-seward-martha-vandewall.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/

........................

Charlotte Neate (1740 - ), nee Seward, the wife of Thomas Neate.

Anonymous artist.

This portrait was still with the family when I took the photographs.

Charlotte Seward was the sister of Elizabeth Seward and Dorothy nee Seward Kenrick and of the writer William Seward. Their father was a partner in Calvert and Seward of the Peacock Brewery in Red Cross St, London, in what was the largest brewers in London in the mid 18th Century.

On the 5 April 1771 - Thomas Neate, aged 31 married Charlotte Seward sister of William Seward of Red Cross St, London.

1771. Marriage of Thomas Neate to Charlotte Seward, the sister of William Seward, of Red Cross St. London.

 1790. Gentleman's Magazine notes Thomas Neate was in residence at Binfield.

The label on the back of the portrait - photograph by the author.

................................

William Seward.

Roberrt Edge Pine

Thomas King Marble Mason of Bath Part 2

 

First draft.

Thomas King (1741 - 1804). Marble Mason

The following paragraphs adapted from -

https://www.bathabbeymemorials.org.uk/sculptor/t-king

https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1553&from_list=true&x=10

For an useful overview of the Monumental Masons in Bath in the 18th and 19th Centuries by Kim Jordan.

https://historyofbath.org/images/ProceedingsPDFs/PROCEEDINGS%2008%202019-20.pdf

Thomas King (1741-1804), was the founder of one of the most prolific west country firms of monumental masons, he was the son of Henry King, a clockmaker of St Dunstan-in-the-West in the City of London. His son continued the business into the 19th century.

Thomas was apprenticed on 26 March 1752 to Charles Saunders? a London mason, but settled in Bath soon after completing his apprenticeship which would have been for seven years. 

I can find no record of a Charles Saunders - but William Saunders fl.1743 - 54 was a London mason who worked on the reconstruction of Leicester House (Biog Dictionary British Sculptors pub Yale 2009) with an address in Windmill Street.

He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Thomas Paty of Bristol on 6 May 1779 at St Augustine the Less, Bristol. 

The Paty family were architects and masons, responsible for Royal Fort, The Bristol Exchange, Bristol Bridge and many monuments. The Paty family was a prominent multi-generational dynasty of masons, surveyors, and architects based in 18th-century Bristol, originating from Somerset stonemasons and carvers who established workshops in Bristol at the Horsefair and Limekiln Lane.

For an introduction to the Paty family and to be treated with caution (generated by AI) see - https://grokipedia.com/page/william_paty#biography

King maintained cordial relations with the Paty family and was left £250 in his father-in-law’s will. When his brother-in-law, William Paty, died, clients were instructed to forward outstanding debts to King. see - (Felix Farley’s Bristol Journal, 4 April 1801).

King had three children, Thomas and Charles, who entered the business, and Mary, who did not marry during his lifetime.

 

The firm produced a large number of small, wall monuments, often incorporating coloured marbles in an elegant oval, rectangular or inverted shield frame. Most were sold to clients from stock. 

Thomas used the customary range of neoclassical motifs: urns, sarcophagi, willow trees, mourning women, crumpled scrolls held by cherubs and broken columns.

Thomas Gainsborough’s account at Hoare’s Bank records a payment of 18 guineas made to Thomas King in May 1771, perhaps for a picture frame (Gunnis).

 

King also worked on bespoke commissions, such as his first memorial to James Quin with a portrait medallion of the actor of 1769. 

His memorial to Robert Walsh in Bath Abbey has a relief of a broken Ionic column clad with yew on an oval ground of streaked grey marble. It has been suggested that this was the first time the broken column, a traditional symbol of Fortitude, was employed alone on a monument. 

Richard Warner, in his History of Bath, 1801, considered the monument the ‘most remarkable for happiness of design in the whole Abbey’.

His memorials for Venanzio Rauzzini and Sir Nigel Gresley are framed with deep swathes of fabric brought together with three knots.

 

King died a prosperous man and left his widow a number of properties in Bath, including offices, a garden and a yard ‘now in my own occupation’ at Beaufort Place, Walcot. His three children received generous bequests. 

He is buried at Woolley, where a modest tablet, for which he earmarked 20 guineas in his will, bears the epitaph: 

‘Many Years an eminent statuary in the parish of Walcot, who after sustaining a long and painful illness with exemplary fortitude and resignation, calmly departed this life December the 5th, 1804, in his 63rd. year.

The will of ‘Thomas King, Gentleman of Walcot, Somerset’, PROB 11/1427, proved July 1805.

............................

Thomas King, Statuary, nr. Walcot Turnpike. London Road, Bath.

 Thomas King senior served his apprenticeship with the Mason’s Company of London then established his business in Lansdown, Bath in the early 1760’s. 

Later he set up a marble yard and workshops at Snow Hill at the junction with London Road by the Walcot Turnpike. It was sufficiently significant to be recorded on Harcourt Masters’ 1794 map of the city.

 

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Some refs to King in the Bath press -

 

Bath Chronicle - 16 February 1786 - Thomas King statuary - marble chimney pieces £6 to £60. Monuments 8 guin to 50 guin.

 Bath Chronicle - 13 April 1786 - Goods: marble chimney pieces, fitted for sale etc at Thomas King's, statuary nr Walcot turnpike.

 Bath Chronicle - 8 Jun 1786 - Goods: For sale marble - chimney pieces. Small monuments for inspection enq T King, statuary nr Walcot turnpike.

 Bath Chronicle -  27 March 1794 - Bath turnpike roads - general meeting of Trustees at the Guildhall on 5 April at 12 noon. To consider removal of present tollbar on London Road at or near Mr King's marble yard in Walcot.

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William Reeves foreman to Thomas King.

see my previous post

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/03/reeves-of-bath-statuary-and-monumental.html

Bath Chronicle - 18 October 1792  - Wm Reeves, marble mason carver etc, many years foreman to Mr King, has opened a yard in James Street, Kingsmead. Monuments, chimney pieces etc.

Premises at 6 & 7 King Street (presumably old King St) from 1792 to 1826 were used by William Reeves probably as his residence

The Kings and the Reeves were the most successful monumental masons in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries with the Biggs and Lancashires offering competition in the heyday of the trade.

The Greenways and Thomas King.

There is an indenture of 20 September 1791, when Thomas King, the statuary of Walcot, with Mr.Charles Harford, gent., as his trustee, conveyed to John Greenway in trust for Francis Greenway, mason, of Walcot (not the transported Australian architect), who would have been only thirteen at the time], ‘part of a pasture of 2a 22p called Upper Tyning [Walcot], being all those plots on the west side of an intended building called Mount Pleasant and all those two messuages thereon erecting at the cost of Francis Greenway.