Bath, Art and Architecture: Some more Eighteenth Century Sculptures at Shugborough

Some more notes.

This post follows on from the previous post.

For an excellent overview of the classical sculpture collection of Thomas Anson see -

Coltman, V. 'Thomas Anson's Sculpture Collection at Shugborough: ''Living good and pleasing'' or ''much taste a turn to Roman splendour'', Sculpture Journal. XII, 2004, fig. 1 on pp. 36 and pp.37, 49.

For much more on the sculpture at Shugborough see

https://priory-of-sion.com/biblios/pos/links/baker.pdf

https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/51821/1/Atkins%2C%20A%20Vol.%201.%20Thesis%20%5BFinal%20Post%20Corrections%5D.pdf

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The 8th Day the Sale at Shugborough of 9 August 1842.

A 13 day sale hold by Mr George Robins.

Robins conducted sales at Woodchester Park, Oatlands Park, Erlestoke Park, Strawberry Hill etc.

The Busts of the Ansons do not appear.

Given the descriptions perhaps one needs to take the auctioneers hyperbole into account!

The Busts in the Library.

Lot 10. Splendid Marble Bust of Shakespeare with dress finely sculptured by Roubiliac 21" High (is this perhaps the version in the Folger Library?). see my post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html

Lot 11. Companion bust of Locke with drapery by Roubiliac. 22". Sold to Emery (dealer?) of (5) Bury St. St James'.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/03/westminster-school-bust-of-locke.html

Lot 12. A Noble Marble bust of Francis, Duke of Bedford with drapery a fine specimen of sculpture by Nollekens on circular pedestal together 29 inches high. (bought for Lord Lichfield).

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Lot 53. A Splendid Marble Bust of Demosthenes by Roubiliac the countenance displaying vast expression and most remarkable in effect on pedestal together 26 inches (this bust is visible in the 1954 Country Life article).

see my next post -

Lot 56. A Matchless Marble Bust of Homer by Roubiliac. The countenance wonderfully expressive full of majesty and intellect on pedestal together 29 inches high. (Bought Wander? for Lord Lichfield).

Lot 57. A beautiful Bust of Marc Anthony finely imagined and sculptured by Roubiliac. on small pedestal 31 inches high (bought by Browne, University Street).

Is this the bust at Goodwood called Trajan?

For Joseph Browne and Co, Stone and Marble Merchant, 33 University Street, Tottenham Court Road (active 1814 - 51) see - https://www.sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/organization.php?id=msib1_1231191259

There is a detailed entry for Joseph Browne in the Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors... Pub Yale, 2009. He supplied funeral Monuments, chimneypieces and was responsible for the sculpture on Nashes Marble Arch. see - https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_1997_Vol_7_07_Saint_0001.pdf

Lot 80. An extremely beautiful Marble Statue of Bacchus the size of life, from the antique sculptured in the finest style by Nollekens 5 feet 3 high and an imitative pedestal 1foot 8 again bought for Joseph Browne (see above note).

Lot 81. A Plaster cast of the Centaur from the Antique Marble Statue in the Dukes Gallery at Florence 4 feet 9 high and mounted on an imitative marble pedestal 2 feet 9 high. (Boudin? for Lord L)

Lot 82. The Companion representing the centaur bound copied from the antique with similar pedestal. (ditto).

Lot 90. A truly magnificent specimen of modern sculpture the life size group of Castor and Pollux, copied from the antique by Nollekens. It is 5 feet 4 and may be ranked as one of the finest efforts of this renowned English sculptor also a stone pedestal 2 feet 4, again purchased by Joseph Browne.

See illustration below.

It was subsequently purchased by H Soden in about 1935 and donated to the V and by hid daughterMrs Borodaile in 1940..

Made by Nollekens in Rome in 1767 from a plaster cast the original much restored was exported from Ialy in 1724 and is in the Prado, Madrid -

This statue is now in the V and A see - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77807/castor-and-pollux-statue-nollekens-joseph/#object-details

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A Marble Bust of (Pseudo) Demosthenes.

The many versions of this bust has been variously described as Lysimachus.

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The Marble Bust of Homer.

As described in the 1842 Sale at Shugborough.

Lot 56. A Matchless Marble Bust of Homer by Roubiliac. The countenance wonderfully expressive full of majesty and intellect on pedestal together 29 inches high. (Bought Wander? for Lord Lichfield).

The quality is so good that it could conceivably be a work by Roubiliac.

The socle is similar to that on the Homer in Trinity College Dublin

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The Trinity College Library Dublin Homer.

Peter Scheemakers.

Signed P.S. Ft.

A version of the Farnese Homer.

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Two Mysterious Very Fine Unidentified Plaster Busts of Children.

The Plaster Bust of a Boy with a Lace Collar.

Height 38cms.

Attributed by the NT to Henry Cheere - I am not convinced.

There are no signed bust by Cheere.

The terracotta might suggest the work of Rysbrack whose terracottas busts were filled and painted to disguise firing cracks.

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1271344.2

The boy is dressed in the van Dyck style frequently used in the mid 18th Century - Gainsborough's Blue Boy at the Huntington Library is a prime example.

The figures of Rubens van Dyck and du Quesnoy by Rysbrack are 18th century examples of the use of this dress. - I have written at great length on these statuettes - for an example see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-rysbrack-statuettes-of-rubens-van_13.html

For further painted portraits with van Dyck clothing see -

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/dressing-up-the-popularity-of-vandyke-clothing-in-the-eighteenth-century

There has been a tendency to attribute plaster or lead busts to the output of Henry Cheere but with little or no evidence - there no inscribed busts by him. Although an attribution for the casting in plaster by his brother John Cheere at his workshops at Stone Bridge, Hyde Park Corner is a distinct possibility.

Generic figures of Putti are fairly common on Church monuments of the period but 18th Century three dimensional portraits of children are very unusual. The two busts of John Barnard of 1744 (marble in the Metropolitan Museum, New York) and the terracotta bust of Edward Salter aged 6 of 1748 (Ashmolean Museum Oxford) the marble bust of Lady Margaret Cavendish of 1728 engraved by George Vertue, the marble of William des Bouverie (Billy) at Longford Castle, Thomas third Earl of Coventry all by Michael Rysbrack are rare examples.

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rysbrack-busts-at-longford-castle.html

See - G. Balderston, 'The Genesis of Edward Salter Aetatis 6', The Georgian Group Journal, 2000, pp. 175-205. Available on line at -

https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2000_14_BALDERSTON.pdf

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Plaster bust of a young girl.

attributed by the NT to Henry Cheere.

Again I am not convinced!

Mid 18th Century.

Height 38cms.

National Trust, Shugborough, Staffs.

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1271344.1

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The Nollekens Bust of Francis, fifth Duke of Bedford at Shugborough.

One of 25 - 30 versions.

Images below courtesy National Trust.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-1326

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For the Sculpture Shugborough see -

-Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country by George Thomas Noszlopy, Fiona Waterhouse. pub 2005.

This publication also notes the busts of Homer (illustrated) and Virgil (no image provided) which it states as by Roubiliac? which are still at Shugborough and which are mentioned in the intriguing 1842 auction catalogue entry of the sale at Shugborough.

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The 8th Days Sale at Shugborough of 9 August 1842.

13 day sale hold by Mr George Robins (1777 - 1847).

Robins also conducted the sale of the contents of Strawberry Hill in 1842, and that at Erlestoke Park etc

The Busts of the Ansons do not appear in this sale.

Given the descriptions perhaps one needs to take the auctioneers hyperbole into account!

The Busts in the Library

Lot 10. Splendid Marble Bust of Shakespeare with dress finely sculptured by Roubiliac 21" High (annotated ditto - Fell) (is this perhaps the version in the Folger Library?). see my post -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html

Lot 11. Companion bust of Locke with drapery by Roubiliac. 22". Sold to Emery (dealer?) of (5) Bury St. St James'.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/03/westminster-school-bust-of-locke.html

Lot 12. A Noble Marble bust of Francis Duke of Bedford with drapery a fine specimen of sculpture by Nollekens on circular pedestal together 29 inches high. (bought for Lord Lichfield).

Lot 14. A splendid bust of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox with drapery a noble specimen of sculpture by Nollekens on a small circular pedestal together 28 inches high - (Annotated Fell ? )

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Lot 56. A Matchless Marble Bust of Homer by Roubiliac. The countenance wonderfully expressive full of majesty and intellect on pedestal together 29 inches high. (Bought Wander? for Lord Lichfield).

Lot 57. A beautiful Bust of Marc Anthony finely imagined and sculptured by Roubiliac, on small pedestal 31 inches high (bought by Browne, University Street).

Is this the bust at Goodwood called Trajan?

For Joseph Browne and Co, Stone and Marble Merchant, 33 University Street, Tottenham Court Road (active 1814 - 51) see -

https://www.sculpture.gla.ac.uk/mapping/public/view/organization.php?id=msib1_1231191259

https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_1997_Vol_7_07_Saint_0001.pdf

Images below

It was subsequently purchased by H Soden and donated to the V and by Mrs Borodaile in 1940..

Made by Nollekens in Rome in 1767 from a plaster cast the original much restored was exported from Ialy in 1724 and is in the Prado, Madrid -

This statue is now in the V and A see -

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77807/castor-and-pollux-statue-nollekens-joseph/#object-details

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77807/castor-and-pollux-statue-nollekens-joseph/