This post came about by researches into the business relationship of Benjamin Rackstrow and his partner the midwife Catherine Clarke at Fleet Street.
Trials for Adultery pub 1779.
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Samuel Euclid Oliver son of Richard Oliver, Mathematician of
Greenwich, Kent wasapprenticed to Benjamin Rackstow from 25 March 1760 for 7
years.
James Hoskins (d.1791) was apprenticed to the sculptor John Cheere (1709-87) in 1747.
In partnership with Samuel Euclid Oliver, Hoskins later managed a workshop on St Martin’s Lane. His stock-in-trade was plaster casts, many of which were copies of antique originals.
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.
James Hoskins, Samuel Euclid Oliver and Benjamin Grant.
Hoskins was apprenticed to John Cheere in 1747. He seems to
have progressed in his employment at some speed: 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).
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. 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 Basreliefs’. 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;
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.
By 1775 Hoskins had entered into partnership with Benjamin Grant, another of John Cheere’s apprentices.
They together supplied Wedgwood with more items (5, 6). 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.
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
see -
http://liberty.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1388&from_list=true&x=11
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 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 1749-50, 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.
