The York Museum Bronzed Plaster Busts.
supplied by John Cheere.
to Chomley Turner at Kirkleatham Hall, Yorkshire in 1749.
Currently in deep store at the York Museums Trust and unavailable for inspection until Autumn 2015.
Plaster bust of Joseph Addison (1672 - 1719). Height 16.5".
Perhaps from a lost bust by Roubiliac.
See Friedman, Man at Hyde Park....
Plaster bust of Addison at Stourhead.
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Lead Bust of Addison probably by John Cheere from a photograph taken in 1917 of Heywood House, Ballinakill, co. Laois, Ireland.
The garden was redesigned and furnished from about 1909 by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Lt. Col. Sir William Hutchinson Poe.
This bust was one of four - the others were Cicero, Shakespeare and Handel. Size is difficult to determine probably three quarter life size. The house was destroyed by fire in 1950. They have disappeared - see my blog entry for - 21 January 2014.
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Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626).
Height 22".
Very loosely based on the Roubiliac terracotta at Wilton House, created for the marble of 1751 in the Library at Trinity College, Cambridge.
See Friedman, Man at Hyde Park...
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Bacon, by Roubiliac, Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Dr Samuel Clark (1672 - 1729). Height 22".
York.
There is a patinated lead bust at Beningborough Hall, National Portrait Gallery by Jamé Verhych, 1719. 23 5/8 in. (600 mm) high. (see below).
There is also a mezzotint of a bust of Clark by John Faber Jr, after an unknown Sculptor described as done after the marble bust for her majesty's Hermitage in the Royal Garden at Richmond - mezzotint, circa 1725-1750. (see below).
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Dr Samuel Clark.
Lead.
Jamé Verhych.
National Portrait Gallery collection.
Beningborough Hall, National Trust.
I suspect that the attribution came originally from an enterprising Antique dealer.
A brief internet search came up with a loose reference to the bust and Sidney J Block in the International Antiques yearbook pub. Studio Vista in 1970.
Sidney Jerome Block (1915 - 83) was an America antique dealer trading at 12 Hinde Street, London W1 from 1956 - 70.
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Dr Samuel Clark.
c.1740.
Faber
Mezzotint,
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William Congreve (1670 - 1729), Dramatist.
Height 16.75".
Perhaps loosely based on a portrait by Kneller.
Update 11 May 2025.
The dress with the open shirt appears to have first been used on the bust on the marble bust on the Monument to James Lawes in Kingston, Jamaica the socle on this bust is inscribed by John Cheere and dated 1727.
I suspect that the Jamaica bust was modelled by Roubiliac who is believed to have been working or subcontracting to the Cheere workshop prior to setting up his own workshop in St Martin's Lane in 1740.
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John Dryden (1631 - 1700).
Height 16".
Another similar plaster but with slightly different detailing to the clothing is at Stourhead, Wiltshire.
Based on the marble in Westminster Abbey or another version at by Scheemakers at Hagley Hall. Worc.
John Dryden.
Stourhead.
Plaster Bust.
Height 22" approx.
Dean Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745).
Height 15.5".
Images of the Kirkleatham busts.
Low resolution photograph of a group of Cheere Type plaster busts - Prior, two as yet unidentified, possibly Sappho, Milton and Locke at Clandeboys House, Bangor County Down, Ireland.
Note Socles of the type popularised by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi and adapted slightly by Nollekins after his return from Italy where he had been working with Cavaceppi, in 1770.
These socles appear on later casts after Cheere and perhaps from the workshops of Harris and Parker or latterly by Harris in the Strand - most likely to have come from the Holborn workshop of Messres Shout.
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