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 appears as a manufacturer of artificial Stone until
about 1825., but it is not clear if there is a connection if any.
.............
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.
................
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.
..................
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
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 handsome bequest of £5.
...................
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
.........................
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
..........
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.
.................
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.
.....................
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/
......................
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/
....................
Image below from
https://www.facebook.com/hornchurch.cottagehomes/
.................
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/
............................
Gone!
..........................
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/
...........................
Nicholas van Spangen and Freemasonry.
From Ars Quatuor Coronatorum: Being the Transactions of the Lodge ..., Volume 23.
No comments:
Post a Comment