The Yale version of the Coade Catalogue of 1784.
The trade card title plate on the cover is engraved by P. Wray, after Charles Reuben
Ryley.
The other engraved plates are not signed.
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Time / Chronos from the Yale Catalogue.
The is no size or price list with this catalogue.
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The National Arts Library Descriptive Catalogue.
Lacks the Engravings but includes the sizes and prices.
Times is described as height 6 ft and cost - £31 10s.
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The Bibliotheque Nationale has the most complete catalogue which can be viewd on line -
https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/35774/?offset=#page=5&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=
The BN engraving of Time and the Druid -
the only difference with the Yale version of the Catalogue is that the statues are numbered on the bases of the statues.
Time is no. 20 and the Druid is no. 21. which suggests that this is a reprint given the minor alteration/numbering of the Coade pies corresponding with the list at the front.
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The Guildhall Library City of London Catalogue.
This Catalogue contains only the engravings - no size/price list.
But the Guildhall Libray files have a photocopied size/price list which is from the original copy in the National Arts Library.
Here in the engravings each individual item is numbered corresponding with those numbers in the Size and price list as in the Bibliotheque Nationale copy (above) .
This suggests that it is a later edition - the earlier edition (the Yale Catalogue does not have the engraved numbers on the individual items).
I am most grateful to Sarah Hume of the Guldhall Library for providing me with several photographs of their catalogue which has enabled me to clarify to some degree the differences in the various catalogues.
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A figure of Time or Chronos by Coade and dated 1792
was sold Christie's at Wrotham Park, 21st June 1994, lot 199.
There are two variants on this theme by Coade are known to have been
produced; the first type, with sickle to his right hand and an hour glass
resting in the palm of his left hand.
The second type as offered in the Wrotham Park sale has an hour glass in his left hand but his right arm is raised to
support a sundial.
The modelling perhaps relates to that of Coade's River God
figure, noted in the catalogue of 1784, which can be fairly safely attributed to the sculptor
John Bacon (1740 - 1799), with whom Mrs Eleanor Coade (d.1796) had been in business with probably from its inception in 1769 (see A. Kelly, op cit p.62).
The same Chronos figure in Coade Stone is featured alongside the
sarcophagus of Dame Anne Henniker (d.1793) in Rochester Cathedral (image below) and its
design appears to have been mistakenly attributed to the sculptor Thomas Banks
in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, part 1, p.410. (see A. Kelly, op cit p.250).
An engraving with Father Time is also featured as the frontispiece to the book
of etchings of Coade's Gallery, which also includes this figure (see Kelly, p.66).
Another sun-dial commissioned by the architect Sir John Soane
(d.1837) is discussed by A. Kelly, Sir John Soane and Mrs Eleanor Coade,
Apollo, 1989; while
Another purchased by James Baxter for his Turnham Green house
in July 1818 was described as "A statue of Time with scythe and hour-glass
complete with rustic plinth. 18 pounds. (A. Kelly, op cit, 1990, p.144).
A six foot figure of Time is listed as item no.20 in A
Descriptive Catalogue of Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory of 1784.
The Yale Version - Type 1.
The Sandringham Version.
From Art uk website
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The Summers Place Auction version.
Lot 4 - 26 September 2023.
Seated on a rock, holding an hour glass, stamped Coade,
London 1792.
with bronze sundial engraved I. Coggs, London fecit.
John
Coggs is recorded as working in Fleet Street between 1718-1733.
This statue was with Messrs Seago of Pimlico Road London in the 1990's.
Height 4' 11".
https://app.summersplaceauctions.com/en/auction/gs260923-home-garden-natural-history/4-a-rare-coadestone-figure-of-father-time
Christie's Wrotham Park - 21 June 1994.
A RARE COADE STONE SUNDIAL FIGURE OF CHRONOS, the winged, bearded god seated and supporting a platform disc on his head, on a naturalistic rocky base, signed COADE LONDON 1792 (damages and losses) 149cm overall.
Probably the Chronos with Messrs Seago in the 1990's.
Images courtesy Seago Xmas Card.
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Christies Lot 69 -20 June 2013.
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Alison Kelly notes the Statue of 'Time' and Sundial, Tyringham Hall,
Buckinghamshire,
Labelled at base Coade Lambeth.
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The Rochester Cathedral Henniker Monument.
One of the grandest monuments in the Cathedral is to Dame
Ann Hennicker (d.1792), featuring two allegorical figures of Truth and Father
Time produced from artificial Coade stone, developed by notable early British
businesswoman Eleanor Coade.
Dame Ann Henniker passed away on the 18th July 1792, aged
65. Her husband Lord John Henniker was the son of a Russian Merchant dealing in Leather and Furs and
Freeman of Rochester. He erected a grand marble monument to his
late wife in the south nave aisle.
At the top of the monument, below the Hennicker family arms,
records:
‘In a vault near this Monument is deposited all that was
mortal of DAME ANN HENNIKER, late the Affectionate Wife of SIR JOHN HENNIKER of
Newton Hall, and Stratford in the County of Essex Bart. He Represented Sudbury
in the first Parliament of His Present Majesty, and in two successive
Parliaments in the Town and Port of Dover in this County.’
The inscription on the marble sarcophagus below reads:
'‘She was the eldest Daughter of Sir JOHN MAJOR BART. of
Worlingworth Hall in the County of Suffolk Member for Scarborough, and
Coheiress with her surviving Sister ELIZABETH DOWR. DUTCHESS of HENRY DUKE OF CHANDOS. Two sons JOHN late
Member for New Romney, And BRYDGES TREGOTHICK Lieutt Coll of His Majestys 9th
Regiment of Dragoons, and one Daughter
ANN ELIZABETH COUNTESS of Aldborough, are left with the Disconsolate & much
Afflicted Husband, to mourn Her loss, who, after 45 Years of Conjugal Felicity,
in the Practice of every Virtue resigned Her Soul to God, at Bristol Hotwells
the 18 of July 1792 Aged 65. Her second Son Major Mercht. of London died the
3d. of Feby. 1789, and lies buried at Stretham: he left 5 Children, vizt. JOHN
MINET, MARY ANN, MAJOR JACOB, ELIZABETH FALL, & BRYDGES JACKSON, ALL
INFANTS, NOW LIVING.’
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The Artificial Stone Druid.
To my knowledge there are three almost complete Artificial Stone Druids - all appear to have eminated from the Coade Manufactory. There are other versions in the "Ruin" at Shugborough and the Vyne in Hampshire.
The Croome Court Version, marked Coade 1793.
This appears to be the best preserved version - it is very close in form to the Priory Park, Chichester version and Erdigg version which are the same as the engraving in the Coade Cartalogue but the headress with oak leaf crown is entirely different.
This version was also restored by Cliveden Conservation including replacement of his right hand.
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The Erdigg Druid.
Inscribed Coade.
Some truly awful photographs are on the National Trust website.
https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1151805
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The 1776 Priory Park Druid, Chichester.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyjc/39482233930/
The statue was originally placed above a water supply in South Street in
1776.
The Council had decided that a new conduit should be built in South Street at the north end of
the fish shambles or market. A pedestal would be built there with a cornice
designed by the Mayor and with a pump placed above a tank four feet across
and ten feet deep.
James Spershott's record of Chichester events states that
'the new conduit was then built in the South Street and a stone image of one of
the ancient druids set upon it and a large reservoir made under ground'.
No reason has been found for the early dismantling of the conduit in South Street about 20 years later.
Possibly its long medieval pipework failed.
The homeless statue was lodged in a passage leading to the Council Chamber
where, back in civic control. A
decision for its sale,arranged by the Mayor, was made in October 1800. its new owner was William Guy, the surgeon who lived in West Street. When he died in 1825, he and the figure were interred together in the family vault in
Chichester Cathedral. The statue remained at the tomb entrance below ground for some
45 years. Around 1870 the statue was removed from the entrance of the vault. Its fate during the next three years is
unclear, but the right arm needed repair. In 1873 the West Sussex Gazette noted
that the druid had at last found a proper resting-place: it was presented to
the Priory Park Society by Dr W A Guy of King's College, London, grandson of
the surgeon.
In 2019, Chichester District Council commissioned Cliveden
Conservation to restore and repair their druid. The conservators were responsible for repairing the two other druids at National Trust properties.
The druid’s right arm was separated at the shoulder and
broken in several places. The right hand, which grasps an oak stave, was in
poor condition. There was also some surface damage, and past repairs and
previous painting had been carried out with unsuitable materials.
Image below from
https://chichesterlocalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/No.26-2010.pdf
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The Shugborough Druid.
.
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Notes on the Catalogues.
So far I have discovered 11 Catalogues.
see - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/08/the-coade-dying-gladiator.html
I havn't yet compared the contents of all the Catalogues and
will do so once I have had sight of all the copies available to me. I suspect more copies will appear as more libraries are
catalogued.
1. Bibliotheque Nationale has the best full catalogue
available on line. Each Item on the engravings is numbered.
https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/35774/?offset=#page=100&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=
2. Yale Centre Catalogue with plates - but it lacks the
introduction and size and price list - online.
The items on the engravings are not numbered
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/alma:9932847843408651
3. A full catalogue
in a private collection (with ink amendments). ex Bonhams. I will obtain full
details in due course.
4. Guildhall Library,
London. A catalogue with 67 plates /70
pages plates but lacks the size or price list. I am awaiting full details of
the contents. They have a photocopy of Nat. Arts Library Size and Price list. Each item is numbered.
5. National Library of Wales - I am awaiting details of the
contents.
6. The Metropolitan Museum. New York. It has the engravings
but it is not clear how many and whether it contains the introduction and size
and price list. - I await further details.
7.The British Museum/ British Library Catalogue - Has the engravings - Paginated
- no size or price list. The Items on the engravings are not numbered.
https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_etchings-of-coades-art_coades-artificial-stone_1779/mode/1up
8. The Royal Academy Catalogue - this appears to be a fairly
complete copy with amendments in ink.
I am awaiting further details.
Three Catalogues exist with no engravings attached.
9. Soane Museum - awaiting further information - an edition
with the plates with a separate size and price list. I am awaiting further
information.
10. The National Arts Library. V and A. Has the unamended
Catalogue/Price List, but no plates - on line.
11. British Library Catalogue (no 2). Only contains the size and
price list - no plates. Available on line.
