A Few Examples.
I will add to this post as I progress.
I can only scratch the surface on the subject here.
Engraving From the Coade Catalogue of 1784 at Yale Centre for British Art.
The Royal Arms of George III appear in Coade’s 1784 catalogue
no. 429, 'His Majesty’s on a Panel', 4ft 6in × 3ft 10in, priced £15
15s,
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/alma:9932847843408651
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The Sworder's Auctioneers Coat of Arms of George III.
Lot 122. 9th December 2025.
Dimensions122cm wide, 47cm deep, 85cm high.
They say - "Comparable examples are recorded, including one sold at Christie’s, 'Garden Statuary - Wrotham Park', 9 November 1993, lot 78, and another at Sotheby's, 'Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art', 2 July 2019, lot 128.
https://www.sworder.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-122---a-coade-stone-royal-coat-of-arms/?lot=556570&sd=1
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Royal Coat of Arms of George III.
Inscribed COADE& SEALEY LONDON 1807.
Offered by Sotheby's 2 July 2026.
Dimensions 157 x 137 cms.
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A Large Fragment of A Coade Coat of Arms.
Height 61cm (24¹⁄₃₂in) Width 68cm (26²⁵⁄₃₂in) Depth 41cm (16⁵⁄₃₂in)
with Messrs Jamb of Pimlico Road, Lomdon.
In 1811, George III commissioned a coat of arms on Coade
stone to hang on the imposing Main Gate (1720) at the Royal Naval Dockyard at
Chatham. This coat of arms reflected his renunciation of his claim to the
French throne in 1800, following the union with Ireland and the abolition of
the French monarchy. These arms replaced the original George I coat of arms,
which were moved to the inside of the gate.
The shop has been a chemist's since 1828, but the arms are
those of Queen Charlotte, consort of George III, who visited Bath in 1817, the
year before she died. So they must refer to royal patronage of some earlier
business based here or hereabouts. The highly complex heraldry combines the
arms of the British royal family with those of her father, who was Duke of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
James George Bubb was christened on 23 September 1781 at
Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, London, the son of James and Fanny Bubb. James Bubb
senior was a tobacconist with a shop in the Strand, and the sculptor exhibited
from an address in that same thoroughfare as a young man. In 1806 Lawrence
Gahagan referred pejoratively to the sculptor as ‘Tobacconist Bubb’, which
appears to confirm the connection (CLRO Misc MSS 207-8). Bubb married Margaret
Alice, second daughter of Henry Blakey of Scots Yard, Bush Lane, on 9 May 1812
(The News, 31 May, 1812).
Bubb entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1801 and won a
silver medal in 1805. He also worked before 1806 for J C F Rossi RA and John
Bingley, who were then in partnership. According to Bingley, Bubb ‘did
studiously attend to the duties of his profession and was employed in the
several works carried on in that period, particularly in marble, viz. Captain
Faulkener's monument in St Paul’s’ (CLRO Misc MSS 207-8).
He won prizes at the Royal Academy Schools from 1801 and won a silver medal in 1805. Before 1806 he worked in the studio of John Charles Felix Rossi RA and John Bingley; Bingley said that Bubb "did studiously attend to the duties of his profession and was employed in the several works carried on in that period, particularly in marble, viz. Captain Faulkener's monument in St Paul’s".
He regularly exhibited his work from his father's
tobacco shop as a young man which in 1806 caused Lawrence Gahagan, who lost out
on an important commission to Bubb, to describe him disparagingly as
"Tobacconist Bubb".
He was employed at the Coade Manufacory
Between 1809 and 1812 Bubb was recorded at three different addresses, ‘Mr Brooks’ in the New Road, Paddington, 22 Tenby Street, Fitzroy Square and by 1812 at Grafton Street East,
Bubb was at 22 Grafton St East, Tottenham Court Rd in 1812 and is in 1832 Robson's Street Directory.
He was responsible for the massive frieze with 40 figures in the Pediment Tympanum and probably the statues on the coping at Cumberland Terrace, Regents Park designed by John Nash and completed in 1826. (the statuary looks good from a distance!! but does not bear close inspection)
Bubb exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830 and 1831 after
which his business began to gradually decline leading in 1833 to a sale of his
"architectural sculpture, casts &c" which included Zoffany’s
'Life Class at the Royal Academy', which was sold to Joseph Browne.
This relief of the Hanoverian royal coat of arms was recovered from the Festival of Britain site in 1951.
It was found in the
premises of a brick-making firm on College Street in Lambeth near the site of
the old Coade Stone Manufactory.
It was made by James George Bubb (1781-1853), a prolific
sculptor in marble and artificial stone. Apprenticed to the sculptor John
Fontum, for seven years Bubb also worked for Eleanor Coade, who had developed
Coade stone. Using 'lithargolite', a ceramic of his own recipe, Bubb set up his
own business as a modeller. During his career he received commissions to
produce sculptures for St Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Exchange, the Guildhall,
the Customs House and the Italian Opera House on the Haymarket. However he was
ill-thought of amongst his peers due to the shady practices he used to secure
the commission to sculpt the monument to William Pitt the Younger for the
Guildhall in 1806. His applications to become a Royal Academician were
unsuccessful.
In 1820 Bubb was declared bankrupt and all of his 'valuable
stock' was sold by auction on September 12 of that year. Aimed at 'artists,
sculptuors, stonemasons, builders and others' the sales description includes
'monuments' and 'pedestals' as well as materials, furniture and books. It is
possible this item was sold at the auction. Although Bubb continued to sculpt,
his business became increasingly precarious. In 1835 he applied to the Artists'
General Benevolent Institution (AGBI) for financial relief having had little
work during the previous two years
