John Johnson, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex, the Crown Court at Lewes, East Sussex and further Coade related works.

 John Johnson, Coade and Shire Hall, Chelmsford, Essex.

John Johnson (22 April 1732 – 17 August 1814) was an English architect and surveyor to the county of Essex. He is probably best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford which opened in 1791 (see below).

Johnson was born in Leicester. He moved to London before his thirtieth birthday and in the late 1760s was engaged by William Berners in speculative building of Berners' estate in Marylebone. 

He designed the Shire Hall at Chelmsford in Essex in 1788 which has three Coade stone reliefs on the front he was also responsible for design and use the three reliefs on the Crown Court at Lewes. the City Rooms at Leicester has two Coade Artificial Stone Statues by Rossi. 

Woolverston Hall, Suffolk of 1776 for the Berners Family also by Johnson has much coade embelishment - 

https://woolverstone.org/heritage-trail/woolverstone-hall/

see also https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/sites/bartlett/files/chapter30_the_berners_estate.pdf

For most of the rest of his life he lived in one of the houses that he had built in Berners Street. In 1782 he succeeded William Hillyer as Surveyor to the County of Essex, a position that he held for thirty years, retiring at the age of 80.

In 1785 he became a partner with Sir Herbert Mackworth and others in Dorsett and Co, a bank in Bond Street, but Mackworth left before 1792, the bank failed in 1797 and was wound up in 1803. After this, Johnson moved from Berners Street to Camden Town, and on his retirement in 1812 returned to Leicester, where he died. 

He was buried in St Martin's Church (now Leicester Cathedral) where he is commemorated on the base of a monument by John Bacon, originally erected in 1786 as a memorial to his parents (poor quality image below).

The Chelmsford Coade Naiad.

The Chelmsford Naiad, or water nymph, is manufacture from Coade Stone. The Naiad fountain was designed by John Johnson as a fountain head to stand outside the Shire Hall, over the town's water source. She was unveiled in 1791, and stood six feet tall, leaning on a pillar, on a pedestal decorated with four dolphins. The pillar on which she stood was five-foot high.

In 1814 the Naiad was replaced by the dome shaped conduit which now stands in Tower Gardens. The statue of Judge Tindal now stands on the spot outside the Shire Hall.

The Naiad was 'lost' for many years. Reputed to hve been sold at auction for £2. In 1963, she was found at Springfield Villa where she was being used a garden ornament. 

The mutilated statue was given to the Chelmsford Society with a chipped nose, and her right arm, left hand and her shield missing. 

The Chelmsford Society gave her to the Chelmsford Borough Council who placed her on display in the Chelmsford and Essex Museum in Oaklands Park. In 1980, she was returned to the Shire Hall where she stood in the foyer.

The figures of Mercy, Wisdom and Justice on the facade of the Shire Hall, and the Stone Bridge over the River Can are also constructed from Coade Stone. These are reputed to have been by John Bacon but it is worth speculating whether the three reliefs and the Naiad came from a design by Johnson.

The Chelmsford Coade Naiad.

Height 183 cms.

One should be thankful for small mercies - a truly awful image of the Naiad from the Artuk webite.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/naiad-250941

This appears to be a special order and is not related to other female statues in the 1784 Catalogue.

The pose is similar to No 34 in the Coade Catalogue (image below)

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The images below from the not entirely reliable Artuk website.

Which states that they are of Portland Stone despite the very obvious Coade indent.

COADE LONDON 1790.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/shire-hall-reliefs-339122

The Coade Artificial Stone Reliefs on the Crown Court, Lewes. 

Here John Johnson uses the same reliefs adapted from those at Chelmsford.

Images from -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/crown-court-figures-275122

Law id indented COADE SEALY 1808.

Indented COADE SEALY 1809.

Coade Chimneypieces with some additional notes on the Architect John Johnson.

 

The  Capesthorne, Cheshire Coade Artificial Stone Chimneypiece.

Indented COADE LONDON 1790.

Shelf width - 2254 mm -  88 ¾ in.

The subject matter would suggest that it was originally in a family chapel.

After a fire and rebuilding, the fireplace was taken to Capesthorne in the 1860s from the family's house in Belgrave Square. 

The building of Belgrave Square post-dates the fireplace by about 40 years and so it is quite possible that this fireplace was in the original Georgian Capesthorne. 

The frieze with classical figures to centre, the end blockings with finely cast dove. 

The jambs with classical figures and winged Putti masks and drapery below. The shelf with Lion's masks, egg and dart moulding and stiff acanthus leaves. The plinth block indented with "Coade, London. 1790".

Previously with Chelminski Gallery, Kings Road, London.

https://www.thornhillgalleries.co.uk/item/stock-number-2613/

notes - 

The chapel at Capesthorne was built in 1722 to a design by John Ward and restored in 1886–88 by Mrs Augusta Bromley Davenport. 

 

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Page from the 1784 Coade Catalogue.

1784 Catalogue No. 514. Sizes and price on page 23.

A Marble version of this Chimneypiece is at Goodwood House.

This image from the Catalogue at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

The Bretton Hall Chimneypiece.

Coade Catalogue no. 514 with different tablet.

Modelled by John Bacon I. 

 102in. (259½cm.) wide; 74in. (185cm.) high; 9in. (22.5cm) deep

Christie's - Clifton Little Venice Sale - 6 June 1994 Lot 188.

A GEORGE III COADE STONE CHIMNEY-PIECE, the moulded shelf edged with drapery swags, the frieze with raised oval centred by a laurel-framed shield with the arms of Beaumont and Wentworth surrounded by swaggged drapery held by a faun and baccante, the fireplace opening edged with entrelac-and-rosette, signed COADE 1796 LONDON (damages to shelf), late 18th Century

Provenance - Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire.

Previously an anonymous Sale, Christie's, London, 25 June 1987, lot 85.

The Tablet is indented Coade Lambeth 1796.

The Coade Chimneypiece in the Breakfast Room at Bretton Hall - some notes.

The new house was begun c.1720 for Sir William Wentworth, who is thought to have designed it himself with the assistance of Col. James Moyser of Beverley, a friend of Lord Burlington, who was also involved later at Nostell Priory. 

The house was described in 1730 as 'now a-building' by the Earl of Mar (then in exile on the continent), It was a nine by five bay block of two-and-a-half storeys, with a low-pitched roof hidden behind a balustrade and sash windows set in moulded architraves. Rather curiously, no surviving view seems to be known of the house before late 18th century alterations.

The first major changes were made for Sir Thomas Wentworth (later Blackett) (d. 1792), who inherited his uncle's Northumberland estates. He brought in William Lindley of Doncaster, who in about 1790 rebuilt the detached kitchens north of the house as an L-shaped block of two storeys above a basement, linked to the house by a long corridor. 

Blackett left the estate to his illegitimate daughter, Diana, the formidable wife of Col. Thomas Richard Beaumont (1758-1829), who spent a fortune on remodelling the house.

One room on the west side of the house has an original plaster ceiling, and the room to its north has a siena-and-white marble chimneypiece with a pastoral scene by William Collins, c.1761. Is it still there? Why and when was the Coade chimneypiece removed?

The rooms east and west of the staircase have later coved ceilings and dainty Adamesque decoration, and there is compelling evidence that at least the east one (the dining room in the 18th century but now called the breakfast room) was altered by John Carr in 1793 - 94.

 Its rich plasterwork is very similar to that at Farnley Hall (Yorks WR) and has monochrome medallions like those at Farnley painted by Theodore de Bruyn.

Image below from Country Life 1938.

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2022/07/519-beaumont-of-bretton-hall-and-bywell.html

The current house was built around 1720 by Sir William Wentworth, assisted by the architect, Colonel James Moyser. Famously the contents of the Henry VIII parlour would be incorporated into the new house.

 In 1792 Bretton Hall passed over to the Beaumont family.

 There began a period of improvement and expansion for the house. In 1793 the library and dining room would be remodelled by John Carr with a new wing built by Sir Jeffrey Wyattville between 1811 and 1814.

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The Goodwood House Chimneypiece.

The Chimneypiece was carved by John Bacon I for the Duke of Richmond in 1777. The design is related to the Bacon Coade Chimneypiece.

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Another Bacon Chimneypiece in the same vein.

Made for Lord Irwin’s house, in Portman Square incorporates figures representing the Muses of Drama and Music, after the models exhibited by Bacon at the Royal Academy in 1777.

Restored by Messrs Melluish and Davis.

https://melluishanddavis.com/project/2268-2/

The Royal Academy Catalogue for 1777.

 

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4 Elements from a Coade Chimneypiece.

Indented COADE LAMBETH DEL 1786.

From the Peter Hone sale by Lays lot 148 12 Oct. 2023

Bought from Messrs Jamb - sourced by them in the USA.

https://www.davidlay.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-148---eleanor-coade-1733--1821/?lot=116667&sd=1

The Chimneypiece from the Octagon House, Washington, USA.

https://architectdesign.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-most-elegant-house-in-washington.html

The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is located at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. 

It was built in 1799 for John Tayloe III, the wealthiest planter in the country, at the behest of his new family member George Washington, as his sister Sarah Tayloe married William Augustine Washington, son of Gen. Washington's half brother Augustine Washington Jr. 

In September 1814, after British forces burnt the White House during the War of 1812, Tayloe, for six months, lent the Octagon House to United States president James Madison and first lady Dolley Madison to serve as the Executive Mansion.

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Mrs Coade at the Society of Artists.

1774 - No 53 - A Chimneypiece in Artificial Stone for a nobleman's hall from a design of Mr Johnson's.

For a fairly in depth look at John Johnson and his relationships with John Bacon and Mrs Coade see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2026/10/john-johnson-coade-and-shire-hall.html

A letter from John Sealy (1749 - 1813) of the Coade Manufactory to the Rev. Dr Hornsby. Dated Wednesday Evening 8 March 97.

 

Since commencing this examination of the Coade Manufactory and it products I was made aware of the excellent work of Prof. Geoffrey Walford by Dr Geoffrey Tyack. 

I cannot claim any new insights into the rest of the sculpture on the Racliffe Observatory - Professor Walford does a much better job particularly with the discovery of the letter from John Sealy - 

The only original research I can claim is my work on the relationship of the (pre 1743) small Roubiliac bronze Hercules and Atlas on the top of the Clay musical clock now in Kensington Palace and the large lead group on the roof of the Radcliffe Observatory Tower.

https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/new-research-on-radcliffe-observatory/

Prof. Walford has published two excellent in depth articles in the Georgian Group Journal.

The Radcliffe Observatory Oxford: New light on its building history Vol. XXXII p. 201.

Coade Stone and the Radcliffe Observatory; Oxford. A letter from the Coade Stone Manufactory Vol. XXXIV p.137.

Here I publish the letter from John Sealy to the Rev. Dr Hornsby Dated Wednesday Evening 8 March 97.

I am very grateful to  Kate Bond Assistant Archivist of the Astronomical Society Burlington House for providing these images

Thomas Hornsby FRS (1733 in Durham – 11 April 1810 in Oxford). He occupied the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford University from 1763. In 1782, he became Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy.

Hornsby was instrumental in the establishment of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford in 1772, and was made Radcliffe Observer in the same year. In 1782, he was appointed Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy. In 1783, he became Radcliffe Librarian. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1788.

'Dear Slr,

Mr Wyatt being in the Country — I am prevented of

availing myself of his advice on the Subject of your

favour of the 6th inst — your approbation of the

Style in which workmanship of the Signs of the

Zodiac have been executed gives me pleasure but

it receives considerable Alloy from yr observations

which accompany it — But indulge me Sir with a few

Remarks on the Subject, and they must be but few as I

am scarce able through sickness to follow my thoughts

or to hold my pen for any length of time together

On looking back to my Instructions for modelling

these Signs I find myself referred to the Globe on

the Shoulders of Atlas in the farnese collection as

described in Spence's Polymetis - Now Sir will you

refer to this - Leo was taken from this - you find the

tail as I have modelled it- nor can I think it worth

altering especially as in Plate 25 No 3 you will also

see the tail turned along his back' [here is a small 

drawingshowing the tail turned along the top of the

lion's back].

In Spence's Polymetis - Now Sir will you refer to this -

Leo was taken from this - you will find the Tail as I have modelled

it - nor can I think it worth alteringespecially as in plate 25 no 3 you will also see the tail his back

(here I have inserted a blow up of the tiny sketch in the letter)

Virgo intwining this constellation withy her face to the earth

for which Spence in So 170 a warrent and was also done

with the approbation of Mr Wyatt -the wings unavoidably resume

a different appearance and I really think it almost gracefull one 

the horn is in the left hand on the globe above  ___ and in this

hand I have put it -

Taurus. On the Globe the Horns of the Bull are reprsented as you

may see very short - it is afrending? which gives it more spirit

we have made it more horizontal to suit the form of the panel

and likewise added a little to the body to fill up more - but I have

no objectionto my Mans forming the back into clouds- as I have shown

in the sketch above -  it was much admired by gentlemen for its effect

in expressing the character - I am sorry yo sho think otherwise -

Capricorn - the Head only of this sign being shown on the Globe the

trest being hid thro its resting on the Shoulders of Atlas - I believe 

Mr Rossi  the gentleman who modelled it took it for granted that a

whole Goat was intended - in this I confess myself to blame in not putting

him right as Spence has sevl instances of the contrary - but I think this

may be altered also - as I have likewise shown above - by cutting away

the hind legs - and sinking the ___? part of the ground

Excuse my enlarging now with utmost respect

I remain.......

Jn Sealy

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Here I have once again used the images from Green Templeton College, Oxford website -

 https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/about/history/radcliffe-observatory/zodiac-signs/

 

 

 

The Coade Relief of Capricorn.

The curious form of Capricornus, the goat with a fish-tail, derives from the myth in which the god Pan jumped into the water just as he was changing shape in an attempt to escape from the monster Typhon. While the half of him above the water assumed the shape of a goat, the lower half became a fish.

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There are only eleven panels of the signs of the Zodiac in all, which fit the spaces in the facade of the  tower of Observatory and complies with ancient Greek thought of only 11 .

 These Coade Artificial Stone reliefs appear to have been used exclusively on the Radcliffe Observatory.

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For some images of works by Felix Rossi (1762 - 1839) see -

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:rossi-john-charles-felix-17621839/page/2#artwork-undefined

Religion by Roubiliac Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire.

 Religion by Roubiliac from the Temple at Gopsall Hall now at Belgrave Hall, Leicester.

Built for charles Jennens.

"Fides Christiana".

This post was prompted by a review of the Roubiliac Sale Catalogue from the Finberg Collection at the British Museum.

Lot 39 First Day of the Roubiliac Sale - A figure of Religion in plaster - bought by (Arthur?) Mr Pond.

This is presumably either a plaster cast or a reduced plaster copy of the marble figure of Religion by Roubiliac now at Belgrave Hall, Leicester originally from the roof of the temple in the garden at the house of Charles Jennens (d.1773) at Gopsall Hall (built 1749/50).

The temple was erected as a memorial to a friend of Charles Jennens, the classical scholar Edward Holdsworth (1684-1746).   It was octagonal externally but internally circular, with eight columns and surmounted with a domed roof.  The whole structure was surrounded by a brick-built ha-ha and entered via steps on the south side.  

There is a painting of Gopsall with the Temple and statue of Religion attributed to Tillemans (1684 - 1734).

Given the date of his death it is unlikely to be by Tillemans (see black and white image below).

A statue of Religion (Roubiliac, c 1760) adorned the domed roof and a cenotaph (by Richard Haywood, 1764), with inscriptions in memory of Holdsworth , stood within.  

The temple collapsed in 1835 and the cenotaph was moved to the formal gardens to the east of the Hall.  

The statue of Religion was donated to Leicestershire Museums and Art Galleries by Richard Penn in 1857.  Both the statue and cenotaph are now on display at Belgrave Hall, Leicester.

For a brief introduction to the history of Gopsall see

http://congerstonevillage.co.uk/gopsall-hall/

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The landscape painting of Gopsall erroneously attributed to Tillemans.

Image from Wikimedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gopsall

The temple which was situated on a gentle eminence at the edge of the Racecourse wood, would have provided an important focal point in the view south across the ornamental lake from the Hall and formal gardens.  

There were no temple structures in the original plans for the gardens and formal parkland dated 1749.  

The original plans for the temple were drawn up by James Paine who also produced designs for the Hall interiors, most of which were not executed.  

Plans produced for Charles Jennens in about 1755 by William and David Hiorn depict an open temple which appears to be a simplified version of the elaborate and decorative structure favoured by Paine.  

This simplified version conforms to the structure in existence today which must have been constructed in the late 1750s as the Hiorns finished work at Gopsall in 1759/60.

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The Royal Institute of British Architects have many drawings related to the planned rebuilding of Gopsall. - https://www.ribapix.com/search?q=Gopsall

It appears the planning went through two preliminary stages before the finaldesign was arrived at.

Two Preliminary Drawings of the Gopsall Temple by James Paine Sr.

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The Temple as built using the simplified Ionic order - drawing by William Hiorne (1715 - 58) or David Hiorne (1712 - 76).

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An Early 20th Century postcard of the remains of the Gopsall Temple

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Of Tangential Interest.

The RIBA drawings for Gopsall Hall.

Of particular interest are the two drawings below of the intended library including the group of busts above the bookcases.