Post under construction.
A Marble Bust of the Laocoon.
This bust is currently with the Tomasso Brothers of London and Leeds.
The photographs here kindly provided by Dino Tomasso.
Here attributed to Roubiliac on the evidence of the form of the socle and the obvious quality.
This form of socle is unique to Roubiliac with the possible exception of a similar socle on the marble bust of Lord Chesterfield by Joseph Wilton in the British Museum and a plaster of Oliver Cromwell in the Royal Academy Stores (see below).
Two busts, one of plaster and the other in marble of Laocoon were included in the Roubiliac posthumous sale.
The Roubiliac Sale Catalogue - 12 May
1762 and the following 3 Days contains Lot 48, 3rd Day - Plaster Bust Laocoon.
Lot 72, 4th Day – Marble Laocoon.
A marble bust of Laocoon by Joseph Wilton signed and dated
1758 which uses the oval socle typical of Wilton’s busts is in the Victoria and
Albert Museum. Wilton was a great friend of Roubiliac – he was in Rome from
1751 – 55 where he made casts and copies of Antique works – it is tempting to
suggest that Wilton provided the original cast of this bust.
Roubiliac, uses the same socle on 14 different busts known
to be from his workshop, as those socles on the four unsigned busts of Laocoon, Milo of Croton, the Anima Dannata (the Damned Soul) after Bernini and a man depicted as the Good Roman Emperor Trajan at Goodwood House illustrated here.
I would suggest that this type of socle first appears on the portrait busts of English stone and marble merchants with workshops and wharfs at Millbank Westminster Edward Chapman Bird (1715 - 92) and his son Christopher Chapman Bird (1739 - 1810) carved by Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784) of Carrara.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/07/edward-chapman-bird-1715-92-marble.html
4 of the busts drawn by Joseph Nollekens at the Roubiliac posthumous sale use this type of socle. These drawings are now in the Harris Museum at Preston, Lancs (see the illustrations below).
I can only find two other uses of a very similar form of Socle by Joseph Wilton - the 1757 marble bust of Lord Chersterfield and a plaster bust of Oliver Cromwell at the Royal Academy.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1777-0620-1
In July 1752, Roubiliac travelled with the portrait painters Thomas Hudson and Arthur Pond for a very brief visit to Rome.
As they were travelling to Italy they met Joshua Reynolds at Mont Cenis who was returning from Rome - they met up with him again in Paris on their return journey and they returned to London together Reynolds arrived back in London on 16 October.
George Vertue states ' their tour of Italy very quick and their stay very little' that they were in Rome 'only long enough to say that they have seen Rome'. Vertue 3. 162. but the dates suggest that they were in Ital from July until early October -
Roubiliac is later said to have exclaimed to Reynolds that the sculpture of Bernini made his own look ‘meagre and starved, as if made of nothing but tobacco pipes’.
Certainly the busts of the Anima Dannata and Milo of Croton (if one accepts the attribution to him!) illustrated here show his admiration for Bernini, Puget and the Baroque.
.................................
Milo of Croton. (Milo Crotoniensis).
The Roubiliac 4 Day Sale Catalogue of May 1762 Lists - Milo.
........................
The Anima Dannata after Bernini.
Here again suggested as by Roubiliac on the evidence of the form of the socle.
The socle is of Nero Portero Marble which matches that on the bust of a gentleman depicted as Trajan (below).
Roubiliac sale under the heading Busts, Heads etc. Plaister,
Lot 18, Day 1, 14 May 1762, A Despairing Soul.
Anima Dannata (Damned soul in hell), both of which are in the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See, Palazzo di Spagna in Rome.
Bernini
considered the models to be among his earliest sculptures and may later have
been responsible for inscribing them: D'anni 12 ('aged 12'). The early history
of the busts is unclear, but Andrea Bacchi has concluded that they are likely
to have been made circa 1619 and were possibly acquired by Fernando Botinete y
Acevedo (1565-1632). Despite an early inventory reference listing them as 'a
nymph' and 'a satyr'.
This bust of Anima Dannata was sold for £176,400 at Christie's, London 7 December 2023 - I don't usually publish the price achieved at auction but in this case I will make an exception -
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6458288
The catalogue entry makes the case for it having been carved by Joseph Wilton on the basis of the socle being similar to that on Wilton's bust of Lord Chesterfield in the British Museum - the evidence I provide here would suggest that only one bust definitely by Wilton uses this form of socle - on the other hand there are a number of busts by or fairly firmly attributed to Roubiliac which use this same form.
If we include the four busts suggested here as by Roubiliac, the Laocoon, Milo of Croton, The Goodwood Trajan type bust and the Anima Dannata - it brings the total to 18.
The catalogue entry suggests that "a final element supporting an attribution to Wilton is that
the treatment of the reverse, namely the patterns left by the tooling, is
comparable to the bust of Philip Stanhope and other known works including his
portrait of Dr. Antonio Cocchi (V&A, London, inv. no. A.9-1966) and ‘Bust
of a Man (After the Antique)’ (Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 87.SA.110)".
Whilst this statement is true, they are certainly not the only busts of the period with the backs finished similarly with a claw chisel.
The Terracotta Bust of Anima Dannata (the Damned Soul), after Bernini.
..................................
Bust of a Gentleman depicted in the Guise of the Good Emperor Trajan.
at Goodwood House.
Here given the evidence of the socle suggested as by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Lot 78, on the 4th Day of the Roubiliac sale under the heading Marble Busts etc is A Caeser
This bust again uses the Roubiliac Type socle and as the marble Anima Dannata illustrated above the socle is carved from Nero Portero Marble.
.................................
The Folger Library bust of Shakespeare.
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Provenance: Acquired by AR Fordham's grandfather in 1859,
I am extremely grateful to Georgianna Ziegler, Assoc. Librarian and Head of Reference at the Folger Shakespeare Library for providing me with these photographs.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-folger-library-marble-bust-of.html
https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/bib244412-309653
It has been suggested that they had been drawn at the studio
of Roubiliac in St Martin's Lane by Nollekens sometime around the time of the sale on 12 May
1762 and the following three days.
This would have been just before Nollekens departed for Italy. On
21 May he had received the last and greatest of his 5 prizes from the Society
of Arts and having won in all £123 18shillings Hayward noted his arrival
in Rome with Jiacomo Freys son on 11
August - a droll account of his journey survives in a copy of a letter written
to sculptor Thomas Banks (1735 - 1805), see Whitley 1821 - 37
The Busts and figures of Lord Leicester at the the Roubiliac Sale.
This bust not only utilises the socle but also uses same drapery as that used by Roubiliac on his marble and
terracotta busts of Viscount Ligonier and the Fordham Marble bust of
Shakespeare at the Folger Library, Washington DC.
.
...................................
The Bamber Monument the bust of Dr John Bamber (1667 - 1753).
c.1754.
On the monument in the North Aisle in St Margaret of Antioch Church, Barking, Essex.
The monument is perhaps by Henry Cheere typically showing
his use of coloured marbles but the bust has all the hallmarks of the mature
Roubiliac and his mastery of depicting old men naturistic fashion.
The bust possibly made for Dr Bamber and later placed on his monument.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019_04_05_archive.html
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The Marble Bust of Sir Peter Warren (1703 - 52).
Louis Francois Roubiliac.
Height 83.8cms.
Huntington Library. San Marino. California.
This is a version of the bust of Warren on his monument by Roubiliac in Westminster Abbey.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/02/bust-of-sir-peter-warren-roubiliac.html
This pair of busts by Roubiliac are on the Monument at Tittleshall Church, Norfolk. The busts were made originally for Holkham Hall, Norfolk and later placed on the monument.
A plaster bust of the bust of Coke remains in the Hall at Holkham, which uses the
same socle. The Nollekens drawing of another bust of the Earl by Roubiliac but
without a wig is in the Harris Museum Preston showing the use of this socle.
This bust is shown in an early 19th century engraving.
Lady Margaret Tufton, The Countess of Leicester (1700 -75)
by Roubiliac utilises the same form of Socle. When Thomas Coke died in 1759,
Lady Margaret completed the work to the house to his exact specification, and
continued to live at Holkham until her death in 1775.
Marble Bust Height 58.4 cms.
I have contacted Okeover but the busts of the Okeovers have disappeared.
The pointer to the Roubiliac authorship is the use of
the same drapery on another bust on the Maynard Monument at Little Easton see below. - Another
feature that appears only on Roubiliac's busts.
Leake Okeover (1701 - 65).
Still in the house in 1964 (Country Life).
Along with the bust of Mary Okeover it seems to have disappeared from Okeover Hall.
I have contacted the house but they can find no trace of them.
At Okeover Thomas Carter acted as a supplier of sculpture from another neighbour in Piccadilly, John Cheere. The accounts show that £8, with 18s for casing, was paid for ‘work done by order of Mr Carter per John Cheere. To making a statue of a black’ (Oswald 1964, 175).
This must refer to a sundial base.
In addition to the Blackamoor, which arrived in 1741, it is possible that ‘two spinx’, supplied by Carter in 1740, also came from Cheere’s workshop.
The most prestigious name associated with the Carter workshop is Louis Francois Roubiliac, who, according to the painter James Northcote, was ‘working as a journeyman for a person of the name of Carter’ in or around 1752 (Northcote 1813, 29).
Roubiliac had long practised as an independent sculptor by this date, but may have assisted Carter or worked as a sub-contractor and vice versa.
Roubiliac later owned a bust of ‘Mr Carter, Statuary,’ although
this could be by Benjamin rather than Thomas I. (sold in the Roubiliac posthumous sale March 1762).
The Bodleian Library Plaster Cast of the Stone bust of Sir Thomas Bodley.
This is one of three busts at Oxford of Sir Thomas Bodley.
The original polychrome stone bust of 1605 is in the Bodleian Library.
Another polychrome plaster is also at the Bodleian and third plaster painted black is at Merton College.
This bust has in the past been attributed to Nicholas Stone - it is my considered opinion that that the stone bust could not have been carved by Nicholas Stone - currently I believe that a more likely candidate would be Isaac James ( fl. 1600 - 1624/5).
Stone would have been aged about 19. A comparison with the
bust on the monument to Bodley carved by the Stone workshop and put up in the
Chapel at Christ Church College, which to my eye is fairly wooden, would
suggest that a much more competent and perhaps more mature sculptor was responsible.
It shows the influence of the Amsterdam sculptor and
architect Hendryk de Keyser (1565 - 1621).
de Keyser was in England in 1606 - Nicholas Stone a pupil of
Isaac James went to Amsterdam with de Keyser married his daughter and returned
to England in 1613.
see - The Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors 1560 - 1660. by Adam White, Walpole Society Journal, 1999.
see my post -
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/hendrick-de-keyser-and-his.html
The Bodleian Polychrome Plaster of Thomas Bodley.
It is more than temping to suggest that the Bodleian and Merton College plasters with the extended trunks were adapted and cast from the stone original in the Bodleian Library by Louis Francois Roubiliac.
There are several other busts by Roubiliac at Oxford including the two busts of Richard Frewen one at Christchurch and the other in the Bodleian.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-busts-of-richard-frewin-by.html
and the Roubiliac bust of Archbishop Chichele and Nicholas Hawksmore at All Souls.
The three busts of Thomas Bodley compared.
of tangential interest -
The terracotta busts anonymousof Sir Nicholas Bacon and Lady Anne Bacon at Gorhambury, Herts
The two busts included here as further examples of realistic polychromed bust busts.
Perhaps related to the bust of Thomas Bodley here suggested as by Isaac James.
https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/DP084661
.....................
Joseph Wilton and his use of the Roubiliac Type Socle.
Apart from the bust of Leake Okeover (now missing) I can only find two further examples of Wilton's busts that use socles similar to the Roubiliac type.
The Marble Bust of Lord Chesterfield.
British Museum.
..........................
A Plaster Bust of Oliver Cromwell in the Royal Academy Store.
Joseph Wilton.
Here compared with the marble version at the V and A.
I was unable to make any serious forensic investigation into
this bust - I will put down my first thoughts here. It appears to have
sustained some damage in the past and this has been disguised by the bronze
paint - in the past it has not been particularly well treated and appears to
have much water staining on the surface.
There are what appears to be piece mould marks, visible
particularly on the face, and the bust has probably been broken and restored at some
point and it is difficult to make out whether the lines on the face and hair
are piece mould marks or breaks that have been restored or a mixture of the
two.
The areas outlined in red show the obvious differences with the marble.
If these are piece mould marks marks this would suggest that this is probably not an 18th Century production but a much later cast - probably 19th century.
I am extremely grateful to Daniel Bowmar, Collections
Manager of the Royal Academy for allowing me access to the Royal Academy
Collection store in East London and for facilitating the photography.
........................
Another Joseph Wilton bust here using the squatter Roubiliac type socle.
The Ceramic Bust of William Pitt the Elder. c. 1769.
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), Prime
Minister.
Harvard Art Museum.
https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/304510?q=wilton
It has been suggested that the bust is of Coade Stone - if this is the case then it is one of the earliest documented pieces of Coade stone. The Coade business commenced at Narrow Wall, Lambeth in 1769.
https://harvardartmuseums.org/article/a-layered-history
The website states -
"Materials such as crushed glass and quartz (sand) grains are
also evident in the clay" .-
This certainly suggests Coade or perhaps Daniel Pincot whose business was taken over by Eleanor Coade in 1769. Coades products have been subject to analysis and the mixture which was variable certainly included powdered glass.
"Though the bust’s composition doesn’t fit perfectly with that of Coade stone, it does seem likely to have been a (now obscure) precursor"
This statement is not entirely correct - the composition of Coade stone was variable but used the same basic materials.
It seems to have been widely known throughout the terracotta trade in the19th century. In 1850, ten years after the closure of the Coade factory, Charles Fowler noted the generally used formula for the manufacture of artificial stone:
"white potter's clay forming about one-half; pulverised stone ware from one third to one-fifth; ditto glass, from one-fourth to one-ninth; and some add ed for finer purposes, for
finer purposes, a small portion of Riegate sand and powdered flint about one tenth part of each.
The (Harvard) team noted that Wilton’s father was a successful architectural
ornament manufacturer. Furthermore, when the Harvard bust’s dimensions are
compared with an identical marble bust of Pitt in the collection of the
Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, Harvard’s bust is an average of 5
percent smaller. Because Coade stone’s reported shrinkage upon firing is also
approximately 5 percent, Sigel posited that Harvard’s bust was probably formed
in a mold made from the Fitzwilliam bust".
Joseph Wilton commemorated Pitt in no less than three full-length statues and seven busts—including this example, which Benjamin Franklin gifted to Harvard in 1769.
This donation—the bust of a British politician who advocated for peaceful relations with the colonies—harbored an obvious political charge in pre-Revolutionary Boston.
The Harvard Corporation acknowledged this
significance in a note thanking the statesman and scientist “for his very
acceptable present of a fine bust of that great assertor of American
liberties.”
The research team behind the Harvard exhibition located the bust slathered in radiator paint in a Harvard office.
See photos from its cleaning
in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art
Museums below
https://harvardartmuseums.org/tour/486/slide/9559
.............................
The NPG Marble bust of Pitt by Wilton.
Here using the more typical Wilton oval plan socle.
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw07194/William-Pitt-1st-Earl-of-Chatham
Purchased by the NPG in 1990
.........................
A version of this bust in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
.jpg)
Government Art Collection.
National Portrait Gallery Scotland
Wedgwood produced a version of this bust (1770 - 80) see -
.................
A Statue of Pitt by Joseph Wilton was sent to Charleston.
......................
Another Wilton Statue Pitt of 1770. Marble now a truncated fragment 71 x 29 x 29 in.
......................
The Afterlife of the Roubiliac Type Socle -
William Shakespeare.
Wedgwood - Black Basalt.
Height: 24.4cm Width: 16.5cm Depth: 11cm.
Victoria and Albert Museum
To my eye the socle is much too big for the bust.
Unfortunately the V and A website does not go into any great detail - there is no reference to any marks and it does not make clear how old this particular bust is!
The Bust of Shakespeare - made at the factory of Josiah Wedgwood, Etruria, Staffordshire, was first produced in around 1775.
Made after a cast bought from the London plaster shop of
John Cheere and invoiced by him in February 1774.
Cheere supplied Wedgwood with busts of Shakespeare, Plato, Homer and Aristotle at half a guinea each, see - Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London,1989, Vol I, p. 450
2477-1901 Jermyn Street Collection.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O149120/bust-josiah-wedgwood-and/?carousel-image=2010EH9800
The style of the dress in particular the embroidery on the waistcoat is certainly in the style of Cheere but this bust appears to be derived from the Scheemakers version.
The bust of Shakespeare in the Long Room of the Library at Trinity College Dublin is probably the origin of the design of the Wedgwood/ Cheere bust.
A related plaster bust acquired by Soane from a Mr Gianelli (there are several Gianellis who worked in London fl 1777 - 1840's) is in the Soane museum but it lacks the embroidery.
I have written a great deal on the subject already of the replication of the busts of Shakespeare in all materials - it is a very complicated matter - I need to return to the subject in the light of recent findings.
https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2015/11/busts-of-shakespeare-by-scheemakers-and.html
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A much larger bust - height 48.2 cms was made by Wedgwood but from a different original.
..............................
Of tangential interest.
A Later Iteration of the Roubiliac Type Socle.
Enoch Wood (1759 - 1840).
Painted Biscuit ware? Described as a Polychromed ceramic Bust.
Sotheby's London, Lot
72, 12 July 2017.
Titled and dated: The Bust / of / Enoch Wood / of / Burslem aged / 62, AD 1821.
62cm., 24 3/8 in.
...............................
The Bonhams Bustof Enoch Wood.
Fine British Pottery and Porcelain Sale, Lot 24. 8 September 2010,
There are two examples of this bust in the Potteries Museum
and another in the British Museum which is inscribed 'Enoch Wood Sculpsit 1821
in the 62 year of his age'
Another version of this bust is in the British Museum
Inscription position: back, collar
THE BUST OF ENOCH WOOD OF BURLSEM.
Enoch Wood Sculpsit 1821 in the 62 year of his age.
My Grandfather Ralph Wood died Aged 77years and was/ buried
at Cheddleton near Leek March 28 1753. He was an honest Miller & ground all
the oatmeal in the neighbourhood of the/ three Mills at Burslem Chedleton &
Bells Hill near Shelton. he/ worked two days each Week at each Mill EW
My Father Aaron Wood Died May 12th 1785 aged 68. Buried at
Burslem 1785. He made the/ Models for all the Potters during the time the salt
glaze was in general use/ Enoch Wood was Born Jan 31th [sic] 1759/ Ann Wife of
Enoch Wood was Born June 1th [sic] 1758 Married/ at Newcastle/ Dec.r 16 1780/
They had Issue/ Ann Born October 19 1782 Married to John Brettell/ Hester Born
April 21 1784 Married to Bob Wilson/ Edna Born June 11 1786/ Eliza Born May 19
1788 Married to Andrew Blake/ May Born April 19 1790. Married to Tho.s J. B.
Hostage /Sarah Born October 13 1791./ Enoch Born Feb.y 12 1793 Married to
Elizabeth Widdowson / Emma Born Feb.y 17 1794. / Joseph Born Feb.y 17 1795. /
Edward Born April 9 1796. / Susan Born May 21 1797./ Thomas Horatio Born
October 28 1804/ Witness my Hand/ Enoch Wood/ April 28 1821. and Memorandum/ In
the above named Millers day/ the Inhabitants of Burslem and/ the Potteries were
few. their Bread was chiefly made of Oat Meal. / In the year 1709 the whole
Expences of/ one Week was £0-16-10½ as follows. Burslem/ Liberty 10-6 Sneyd
Hamlet 1/6 Hulton Lordship 4.10½. In the last year 1820 Enoch Wood & Sons
were assessed & Paid/ six levies of £60-1-6 each or £360-6-6 within/ the
year for the use of the Poor only & to Church, King, Roads &. &.
&. numerous additional sums of money. EW1821.
Another version of this bust is in the Potteries Museum at Burslem.
Images here from Art UK website.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/search/actor:wood-enoch-17591840
This website reveals further use of this type of socle by Wood.
Another version of this portrait, dated 1821 but was recast by James Macintyre
and Co., Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, 1899. is in
Inscription description
Copied from the original / signed by Enoch Wood / in the
possession of / Mr Henry Watkin / Mar 12 1889 / Data / from original /
manuscript / signed by Enoch Wood / Thomas Wood Bishop of Lichfield 1671-1690 /
Ralph Wood born…died 1690 / Ralph Wood born 1677 died 1753 / Aaron Wood
born...died 1785 / Aaron Wood born 17-9 died 1816 / Josiah Wood born 1786 died
1868 / Josiah Wood born 1827 died 1887 / Francis John Wood born 1856
.....................................
The Biscuitware Bust of Enoch Wood Jnr. (1759–1840).
Dated 1814.
No size given.
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
ENOCH WOOD, JUNR / Ætat 21, February 12, 1814 / ENOCH WOOD,
SENR, SCULPT. / A Birthday present. / Joy to my Brother! may the years / That
Time on rapid pinions bear / Be blest with life’s last setting sun, / As those
which mark’d thee twenty-one....
Alexander I (1777–1825) was Tsar of Russia between 1801 and
1825.
Presumably 1814.
H 51 x W 70 cm.
Height 71 x 46 cms.
....................
William IV (1765–1837).
Enoch Wood (1759–1840).
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
dated - June 1 1831.
............................
An Antique 19th Century Portrait Bust of Henry Gwyther, Vicar
of Yardley, signed by Staffordshire Potter, Enoch Wood.
https://decorativeantiquesuk.com/products/antique-19th-century-portrait-bust-signed-by-enoch-wood
..................................
The further use of the Roubiliac Socle by Enoch Wood - a illustrated list.
By no means definative.
These busts are not particularly rare - early mass production but they were decorated by hand and come in many variations.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4437606
.............................
George Whitfield.
Lead-glazed earthenware c1790.
Dimensions: Height: 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm).
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/198683
https://www.potomackcompany.com/auction-lot/enoch-wood-pearlware-bust-of-george-washington_8944622b2f
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