Monument to Thomas Milles, Bishop of Waterford, d. 1740.

 

Monument to Thomas Milles, Bishop of Waterford, d. 1740.

Louis Francois Roubiliac

Designed by  Sir Charles Frederick (1709-1785).

 Frederick produced designs for at least two monuments which were executed by Roubiliac. 

Another post in a series illustrating the earlier works by Roubiliac in the 1730's / 40's. 

Prior to the erection of the monument in Westminster Abbey of the Duke of Argyll in 1748.

The first was a monument to Thomas Milles, Bishop of Waterford, who died in 1740. This was erected in the church of Highclere, Berkshire, where Thomas Milles' father Isaac (d.1720) had been resident vicar for nearly forty years. 

Although the monument is inscribed on the left side 'Charles Frederick invt. L.F. Roubiliac sculpt.' no other inscription survived the move when the church in which the monuments were originally housed (built by Sir Robert Sawyer in 1688) was demolished to make way for (that vandal) Sir George Gilbert Scott's replacement in 1870.

Not one of Roubiliac's masterpieces' (according to Pevsner).

Image below from

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2606556

I suspect that these photographs do not do the monument justice - the monument was almost certainly in a lower position before it was moved - the low angle looking upwards in both of these photographs isn't helpful.

I will attempt to visit and take some photographs next time I am near.

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Image below courtesy Flikr.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/12608538@N03/8260800173/

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The second monument executed by Roubiliac to the designs of Charles Frederick, was erected at the request of George, Lord Lyttleton (1709-1773) to his wife Lucy, who died in 17k7 at the age of twenty-nine.

Both designs are surprisingly similar, consisting of a weeping putto in each case flanked by an urn. (Plate 77). The monument to Lucy Lyttleton is embellished with exquisite carving in relief on the urn representing roman style, a lady reclining on a couch, with the inscription 'LUCIAE' beneath.

Bust of the Chambers in Derby Cathedral, attributed to Roubiliac.

 

The Monument to Thomas Chambers and his wife, Margaret. 

Put up in All Saints, Derby in 1737,

 at the request of their youngest daughter, Hannah Sophia,the Countess of Exeter.

Attributed to Louis Francois Roubiliac.

see -

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30695656.pdf

The inscription on the monument states that Thomas Chambers was a London merchant who died in December 1726; his wife, Margaret was the daughter of John Bagneld of Derby and died some nine

years after her husband in April, 1735. 

The Exeter family, like the Devonshires and Montague had traditionally patronized Huguenot craftsmen; Louis Chron and Rene Cousin, the gilder, assisted with the decorative painting at Burghley in the 1690's and the gatesmith Jean Tijou worked there in the same decade. 13

 A collection of bills addressed to the Countess of Exeter, 17k9 to 175k, shows that this tradition of Huguenot patronage was continued, the collection includes accounts from the Huguenot jewellers, Peter Dutens and S. Pa.ssavant, the haberdashers Peter Galliard, and Mettayer & Co., the fanmaker,Phillip Margas, and the cabinet-maker, Robert Tymperon.

This essay forms part of a study on the early Monuments either by or with the participation of Roubiliac prior to the unveiling of his statue of Handel at Vauxhall Gardens in 1738

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