Some Wedgwood busts after the originals by John Cheere including Alexander Pope

 Some Wedgwood Busts 

After the originals by John Cheere 

including a bust of Alexander Pope.

This post under construction.

Images below courtesy Sotheby's, New York.

see - https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2019/wedgwood-and-beyond-english-ceramics-from-the-starr-collection/

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF ALEXANDER POPE LATE 18TH CENTURY

On an integral socle base, impressed lowercase Wedgwood & Bentley mark to reverse at side.

 Height 14½ in.   - 36.8 cm

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A WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET EDMUND SPENSER LATE 18TH CENTURY

on a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder impressed with uppercase WEDGWOOD mark, the lower body SPENSER, the underside of socle WEDGWOOD over numeral 2.

 

Height 15⅛ ins - 38.3 cm

 In 1769 the sculptor P. Theodore Park sent a bill to Wedgwood for modeling several statues including Spenser. A second example which had been in the collection of Frederick Rathbone is illustrated in Captain M. H. Grant, The Makers of Black Basalts, London, 1967, pl. XLIV, no. 1.

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OFTHE POET AND PLAYWRIGHT BEN JOHNSON LATE 18TH CENTURY

On a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder with impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD, letters RK, the lower edge with uppercase JOHNSON, the underside of the socle with uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark.

 

Height 17⅝ in.   - 44.7 cm

 Provenance

The Milton Milestone Collection of early Wedgwood Pottery, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, April 6, 1976, lot 217

Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, December 1, 1977, lot 64

 

Another example is in the Manchester Museum, illustrated in Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London, 1989, Vol. I, p. 455, who notes that the plaster cast was supplied by Hoskins & Grant and that the bust is first listed in the Wedgwood and Bentley catalogue of 1774 (see Reilly, 1989, Vol. II, p. 750).

A WEDGWOOD BLACK BASALT BUST OF CHAUCER EARLY 19TH CENTURY

On a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder with impressed uppercase CHAUCER, uppercase WEDGWOOD mark to lower body and underside of socle.

 

Height 12 in.    - 30.5 cm

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE DUTCH JURIST HUGO GROTIUS CIRCA 1775-80.

 After Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt (1566-1641), wearing a large layered ruff over a doublet, raised on a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder with impressed uppercase GROTIUS, over letter H., the underside of socle with uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark.

 

Height 20⅜ in. - 50.7 cm

 

Provenance -Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. New York, December 1, 1977, lot 66

 

Literature - Gallagher, Ars Ceramica, 2019, no. 31, p. 18, fig. 9

 Gallagher, 2019, op. cit., writes that in September 1779, an order of six large busts, including a Grotius, was fulfilled for the Dutch market and which came through Wedgwood's Amsterdam agent Lambertus van Veldhuysen. A bust of Grotius is also included in Wedgwood and Bentley's 1779 trade catalogue. The source for the bust is likely the 1631 oil painting by Michiel Jansz. Van Mierevelt (1576-1641). A second bust of Grotius of this large size from the Bernheim Collection was sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, February 26, 1972, lot 116.

A WEDGWOOD VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE LATE 18TH CENTURY

 On a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder embossed in uppercase SHAKESPEARE, and lowercase Wedgwood mark, the underside of the socle with uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark.

 

Height 19 in  - 48.2 cm

Provenance - Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, December 1, 1977, lot 65.

 In February 1774 the sculptor John Cheere supplied Wedgwood with busts of Shakespeare, Plato, Homer and Aristotle at half a guinea each, Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London,1989, Vol I, p. 450. A bust of this larger size was sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, January 15, 1976, lot 28.

A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF ROBERT BOYLE LATE 18TH CENTURY

 On a separate socle base, the reverse edge of the shoulder impressed in uppercase BOYLE, traces of two further impressed BOYLE marks, the underside of the socle base impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark.

 

Height 18 in.  - 45.7 cm

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A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF JULIUS CAESAR CIRCA 1779.

 

On a separate socle base, the reverse edge at the shoulder impressed uppercase JULIUS CAESAR, the lower edge impressed lowercase Wedgwood & Bentley mark, the socle base impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY.

 

Height 18⅝ in.  47.4 cm

 Provenance - Sotheby's New York, October 11, 1995, lot 164

 

Wedgwood wrote to Bentley in February 1771: "I wrote to you in my last concerning of Busts. I suppose those at the [Royal] Academy are less hackney'd & better in General than the Plaister shop can furnish us with; besides it will sound better to say - This is from the Academy, taken from an Original... than to say, we had it from Flaxman."

 though he concluded that "we must be content to have them [the moulds] as we can, & as Oliver, as a plaister figure maker, in selling his moulds, transfers his business likewise to us he must be pd. handsomely for them.", Reilly, 1989, Vol. I, p. 450. It was apparent to Wedgwood that he could create more durable, and beautiful models than anything produced in plaster. By 1774 Josiah proclaimed he would have "a collection of the finest Heads in the Word". (Reilly, ibid, p. 456.)

 

 According to Robin Reilly and George Savage, The Dictionary of Wedgwood, 1980, p. 67, this bust of Caius Julius Caesar was "supplied by Hoskins & Grant [to Wedgwood in] 1779, [and] not listed in the Catalogues after that date."

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A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET HORACE CIRCA 1775

 the reverse of the bust impressed HORACE, lowercase Wedgwood & Bentley, incised marks, the underside of the socle impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY.

Height 14⅜ in.  36.4 cm

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A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF CICERO CIRCA 1777.

 on a separate socle base, impressed lowercase Wedgwood & Bentley mark to reverse of shoulder and underside of socle, the shoulder with uppercase CICERO.

 

Height 10¼ in.   26 cm

 

 

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A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY BLACK BASALT BUST OF THE POET SAPPHO, LATE 18TH CENTURY

 on a separate socle base, impressed uppercase SAPPHO to reverse of bust, the underside WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY.

 

Height 14⅝ in.   -  37.2 cm.