Some Notes - in preparation.
The van Spangens - a family of Masons and Sculptors.
The family appears to have operated in London between 1677 and 1757.
Sometime in the 1790's a Nicholas van Spangen, London merchant formerly of Altona appears as a manufacturer of artificial Stone until about 1825, but it is not clear if there is a connection if any with the earlier van Spangens.
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Synchronicity.
This essay resulted from two separate strands of research -
The first into the apprenticeship of John Cheere with Henry Crofts - mason, d.1727.
At least one of the Cheere's families kinsmen was a haberdasher and John’s name appeared in the Apprenticeship Books in August 1711, when he was indented to another haberdasher, the mason Henry Crofts.
He must have had training as a sculptor,
perhaps in Henry Croft workshop and evidently acquired a sound knowledge of casting
and mould-making techniques.
The professions of Haberdasher and Stone Mason are not mutually exclusive -
and the second - a request to discover more information about the artificial stone manufacturer Felix Austin fl 1817 -72 who indented a life size composition stone cast of the Hound of the Alcibides dated 1826 in a private garden in Gloucestershire.
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The van Spangens Sculptors in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Richard van Spangen I - fl. 1677. ( b.c 1652 - 1702). He was described as of St Brides, London, Carver, aged about 25 when he married Martha Garland on 18 September 1677.
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I could not have got very far with this without the on going input of David Beattie
I offer grateful thanks to him for patiently answering my enquires.
Richard van Spangen III's largest known commission is the monument to Alderman Arthur Winsley , a full-length reclining portrait statue of a Colchester cloth merchant and philanthropist, seen turning thoughtfully away from a book imploring the viewer to ‘Go and do likewise’ (the iconography was suggested by Winsley himself in his will).
It was until recently deemed to be the work of Rysbrack but David Beatties research goes along way to clarifying the matter.
David Beattie’s booklet of 2003 not only connects him with the Winsley monument, based on the faculty, contract and receipt to be found in the Essex Record Office, it also considerably expands on the little that is known about Van Spangen’s life and career, including the important fact that he was apprenticed to Samuel Fulkes ( d.1714), one of the leading masons of the time: amongst other appointments Fulkes was ‘overseer of the masons’ for the building of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Image of the Winsley Monument at Colchester below from.
Essex Society for Archaeology and History Newsletter of Summer 2023 - Article by James Bettley
https://www.esah1852.org.uk/library/files/newsletter-199-summer-2022-2392615216.pdf
Biography of Richard van Spangen II.
from https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2529
A Mason and Haberdasher of Camberwell, Surrey. He was the son of Richard Van Spangen and was apprenticed to Samuel Fulkes, of the Haberdashers Company, for seven years on 30 April 1703.
He married Ann Fisher
on 10 October 1723 at St Giles Church in Camberwell; their son, another Richard
Van Spangen, was apprenticed to the Haberdashers on 8 May 1741, although he,
like his father, became a stonemason.
It should be noted that Haberdasher and (stone) Mason were not mutually exclusive
In 1728 Richard van Spangen subscribed to James Gibbs’s Book of Architecture
and the following year carved a font to Gibbs’s design (3). This was
commissioned by a Mr Hume whose memorandum reads ‘Sept 1729 I agreed with Mr
Van Spangen to make me a font to the dimensions and form of the draught made by
Mr Gibbs architect. The Bason and pedestal to be of the best white veined
marble. The plinth of black marble vein’d with gold, and the step of Portland
stone. The whole to be perforated with a brass stop-cock to carry off the water
into a cistern below, and to be set up in Dulwich College Chapel’ (Young 1889,
2, 346).
He is likely to be the ‘Mr Spangor’ who provided the monument for Lord Trevor, commissioned by the 3rd Baron Trevor (1). It has an armorial shield with helm, crest and supporters, and a cushion of white marble supporting the baron’s coronet. The Rev Benjamin Rogers noted in his diary ‘Some of the marble cost Mr. Spangor the Statuary in the block in Italy 18s. per foot, which stood him in 26s. per foot when brought to London, this was black with yellow veins’ (Harvey 1872-8, 68). It was completed on 25 October 1732. His largest known commission is the monument to Alderman Arthur Winsley (2), a full-length reclining portrait statue of a Colchester cloth merchant and philanthropist, seen turning thoughtfully away from a book imploring the viewer to ‘Go and do likewise’ (the iconography was suggested by Winsley himself in his will).
The work was only recently identified as Van Spangen’s from a
contract in Essex Record Office (Beattie 2023), and the scale of the work
suggests that he was a more substantial sculptor than might be assumed from his
few currently known works.
In 1747 he was the principal beneficiary in the will of his ‘only brother,’ John Van Spangen of St James, Westminster, who left him all his money, chattels and household goods (PROB 11/757/96 proved 5 October 1747).
There was a sale of a collection of paintings by John Van Spangen, ‘late of
Poland Street,’ soon after, on 10 February 1748, at Cock’s sale rooms. The
timing suggests that this well-known art collector was Spangen’s brother. The
collection consisted mainly of works bought by Van Spangen in Holland,
including notable works by Rembrandt. It also included a number of ivories by
Francois Duquesnoy (Catalogue of the Entire Collection of Curious Pictures of
Mr John Van Spangen, Cock and Langford, London 10 February 1748).
The John van Spangen Sale Catalogue is available on line at - https://archive.org/details/frick-31072001958836/page/n5/mode/2up
Richard van Spangen appears to have had some association with Thomas
Dunn, who names him as ‘Richard Spanger other Spangen’ of Camberwell in his
will. Van Spangen acted as an executor and was left £5 and a gold mourning ring
(PROB 11/747/12-15).
Ruper Gunnis possessed a letter from Van Spangen, dated 19
December 1749, addressed to a Mr Hooper of Hailsham, Sussex, enclosing three
drawings for monumental tablets. The current whereabouts of this letter is
unknown, but Gunnis quoted it at length. Spangen wrote ‘the enclosed sketches I
have made according to your direction, the expense will be about what you
mention; they are drawn to a small scale but when executed will be about 8 ft.
high and breadth proportionate. Materials to be of the best white and Veined
and statuary marble’. It continues, ‘the inscription to be engraved and painted
black, and the coat of arms in proper colours and executed in a workmanlike
manner’. It is not known if Mr Hooper ever ordered from one of these designs
and there is no sign of any work resembling them in Hailsham church.
Van Spangen was buried on 8 February at St Giles’ Camberwell and, unusually, was interred at the same time as his wife, who seems to have died at the same time.
His will, drafted in 1748, made Ann his sole heir, but
it was proved on 14 February 1757 after her death with her heir, Thomas
Metcalfe, acting as sole executor.
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Correspondence with David Beattie.
"Ian Stone tells me that Henry Crofts was not a member of the Masons’ Company. I have discovered that one Henry Crofts was apprenticed to Samuel Fulkes, Haberdasher, on 20 May 1680.
Ian Stone tells me that Henry Crofts was living at Samuel Fulkes’ house in Fetter Lane in 1694.
By the end of the seventeenth century the guild system was breaking down. The archivist of the Haberdashers’ Company has told me that by the eighteenth century that Company had lost all its links with the trade of haberdashery.
My own Company, the Masons, resented the fact that so many masons and carvers belonged to other, probably wealthier, guilds and in 1694 obtained an Act of Common Council which required all masons who were free of other Companies to join the Masons. Hence their inquiry into Crofts’ whereabouts.
Between 1695 and 1717 we managed to get 36 men turned over, of whom at least 12 were Haberdashers.
Fulkes was listed as a silver spinner in the Haberdashers’ records, but was in fact one of the leading mason contractors in London.
He did a lot of work on St Paul’s and other City churches after the Great Fire and was for a time Overseer of the masons’ work at St Paul’s. Richard van Spangen (sr) was apprenticed to Samuel Fulkes on 30 April 1703.
He (Van Spangen and Crofts) were therefore fellow apprentices of the
same master. Evidently this created a strong bond, even though Crofts was the
senior by 23 years. They probably worked on St Paul’s together.
As Crofts’ will shows, Richard Van Spangen Sr (the sculptor) was one of his executors and was recompensed accordingly. I am intrigued by the fact that Crofts made so many bequests to his son Richard jr, even though the son was almost certainly newly born at the time that the will was made in 1727. (I have found no record yet of Richard Jr’s baptism.) These bequests were conditional on Richard Jr surviving until he was 21. Richard Jr was apprenticed to his father in the Haberdashers in 1741 and was made Freeman of that Company in 1748.
But I think that he must have died very soon afterwards, since on 30 November 1748 his father made a will which made no mention of him but left everything to his wife. She died a few hours after him in 1757, and there was nobody to inherit the estate.
I have been puzzled by the bequests to Richard jr. Ian Stone has suggested that Crofts might have been Richard Jr’s godfather".
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The Will of Richard van Spangen II d. c.1757. Mason and Haberdasher of Camberwell pub. 1757.
see National Arc - https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D576366
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In his will his brother John van Spangen left of his possessions including his tools and bench to his brother Richard - PROB 11/757/96 proved 5 October 1747.
Thomas Dunn mason of Southwark d. 1746, he left to Richard van Spangen in his will a (not very) handsome bequest of £5.
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Richard van Spangen II. sometimes Spanger (d. c. 1757) of Camberwell.
The Font in Dulwich College Chapel.
1728.
In 1728 Richard van Spangen II subscribed to James Gibbs’s Book of Architecture.
Richard van Spangen made the font (designed by Gibbs) for Dulwich College in 1729 (Young’s History of Dulwich College, Vol. II, page 346).
Dr. Gibson, then chaplain to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and subsequently Bishop of London, presented to Dulwich College the font which is still in the chapel, made by Mr. Van Spangen from a
design of Mr. Gibbs, architect, and bearing the reversible Greek motto, — (Wash
away sin, not the visage only.)
This was
commissioned by Mr Hume whose memorandum reads ‘Sept 1729 I agreed with Mr Van
Spangen to make me a font to the dimensions and form of the draught made by Mr
Gibbs architect. The Bason and pedestal to be of the best white veined marble.
The plinth of black marble vein’d with gold, and the step of Portland stone.
The whole to be perforated with a brass stop-cock to carry off the water into a
cistern below, and to be set up in Dulwich College Chapel’ (Young 1889, 2, 346).
......................
The Monument to Lord Trevor.
In the Dynevor Chapel, St Owens, Bromham Park, Bedfordshire.
1732.
Richard van Spangen.
He is almost certainly the ‘Mr Spangor’ who provided the monument for Lord Trevor at Bromham, commissioned
by the 3rd Baron Trevor. It has an armorial shield with helm, crest and
supporters, and a cushion of white marble supporting the baron’s coronet. The
Rev Benjamin Rogers noted in his diary ‘Some of the marble cost Mr. Spangor the
Statuary in the block in Italy 18s. per foot, which stood him in 26s. per foot
when brought to London, this was black with yellow veins’ (Harvey 1872-8, 68).
It was completed on 25 October 1732.
Baron Trevor
like his father he was a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was MP, as a whig, for
Woodstock [Oxfordshire] from 1746 to 1753. He married Elizabeth, daughter of
Sir Richard Steele, on 30th May 1732. The 3rd Baron died on 17th September 1764
at Bath, Somerset, aged 69 and was buried at Bromham where his monument may be
seen in the north aisle.
Images below from -
https://seearoundbritain.com/venues/st-owens-church-bromham-open-on-request-free/pictures
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Richard van Spangen and the Widdrington Monument.
in Nunnington Church. North Riding Yorkshire.
Designed by and inscribed James Gibbs.
1743.
Notebook
with the Royal Society of Antiquaries -The contents list indicates that these
were communicated by Mr Van Spangen, mason of Camberwell - Nunnington North Riding,
Yorkshire, to William, Lord Widdrington (d. 1743); inscription at Milton, near
Peterborough, to Sir William Fitzwilliam, kt (d.1599); and inscription at
Cuckfield, Sussex, to Charles Sergison (d.1732).
https://collections.sal.org.uk/sal.10.10.086
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The Monument to Arthur Winsley in St Jame's Church, Colchester, Essex.
Richard van Spangen.
1726/7.
Richard van Spangen III's largest
known commission is the monument to Alderman Arthur Winsley , a full-length
reclining portrait statue of a Colchester cloth merchant and philanthropist,
seen turning thoughtfully away from a book imploring the viewer to ‘Go and do
likewise’ (the iconography was suggested by Winsley himself in his will).
It was until recently deemed to be the work of Rysbrack but David Beatties research goes along way to clarifying the matter.
David
Beattie’s booklet of 2003 not only connects him with the Winsley monument, based on the
faculty, contract and receipt to be found in the Essex Record Office, it also
considerably expands on the little that is known about Van Spangen’s life and
career, including the important fact that he was apprenticed to Samuel Fulkes ( d.1714),
one of the leading masons of the time: amongst other appointments Fulkes was
‘overseer of the masons’ for the building of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
Image of the Winsley Monument at Colchester below from.
Essex Society for Archaeology and History Newsletter of Summer 2023 - Article by James Bettley
https://www.esah1852.org.uk/library/files/newsletter-199-summer-2022-2392615216.pdf
Thomas Bates of East Greenwich, gardener, will dated 10 Aug 1738. 'good for nothing' sister Elizabeth Rogers, wife Alice, executrix - witnesses Richard Fenn - Elizabeth Phillips.
Codicil dated 19 Mar 1740 - witnesses Mary Evans - Rich'd Van Spangen.
The Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal - in 1801 and Friday 08 January 1802 notes Nicholas van Spangen, Merchants at Wells St, Goodman's Fields, East London.
The London Gazette in 1804 mentions his Bankruptcy of 29 Nov. 1799 and states he is late of Wells Street.
Later of near the Globe at Mile End, East London.
The Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal - in 1801 and Friday 08 January 1802 notes Nicholas van Spangen, Merchants at Wells St, Goodman's Fields, East London.
The London Gazette in 1804 mentions his Bankruptcy of 29 Nov. 1799 and states he is late of Wells Street.
Later of near the Globe at Mile End, East London.
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The Later Partnership of van Spangen and Powell.
Felix Austin (fl. 1820s-1850s) acquired Van Spangen and Powell, manufacturers of artificial stone and also acquired his moulds in about 1828.
Felix Austin was at New Road, now Euston Road, Regent’s Park, the business later became Austin and Seeley.
Austin and Seeley specialised in cement based garden ornaments, was still in
existence in 1872.
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The Statue of Charity by Nicholas van Spangen and Powell of Mile End.
Hackney Museum.
I am assuming all the references below refer to the same statue - it might be coincidence but the dates suggest otherwise.
Presented to The Royal Cumberland Freemasons School for Girls in 1801.
and removed in 1843 when the school moved to Clapham.
......
The statue was later in a niche on St Leonard’s Parochial Schools in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch (illustrated below).
The Drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum by Allen? below is dated 1845.
The Kingsland Road building itself had a plaque recording its rebuilding in 1802.
This building was demolished and rebuilt again in 1887.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O767580/charity-school-kingsland-street-hoxton-drawing-allen/
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The Statue at Hornchurch, Essex
c. 1909/10.
The Shoreditch Guardians of the Poor opened Hornchurch Cottage Homes in 1889. They continued in use as children's homes until 1984 - a full 95 years of residential childcare.
The photographs below show the statue at Hornchurch.
images below from - https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Shoreditch/
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Image below from
https://www.facebook.com/hornchurch.cottagehomes/
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The Photographs below taken in 1978.
Described as Tower Hamlets Children's Home, Hornchurch Road, Romford: front elevation.
Images courtesy London Picture Archive - used with permission.
https://www.landofthefanns.org/story/40-hornchurch-cottage-homes-for-children/
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Gone!
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This much travelled Statue of Charity by Nicholas van Spangen is now in Hackney Museum.
https://slightlyweird.com/2020/10/28/a-visit-to-the-hackney-museum/
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Nicholas van Spangen and Freemasonry.
From Ars Quatuor Coronatorum: Being the Transactions of the Lodge ..., Volume 23.
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