Post under construction.
The post includes a few rough biographical details of Carpenter and some images of other works by him
Photographs here by the author September 2025 during a short vacation / fact finding visit to Lincolnshire.
The Church is redundant and managed by the Church Conservation Trust. https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/
A fabulous case of benign neglect - beware the bat shit!
The Monument is in a seldom visited church in a remote corner of Lincolnshire, close to the east coast on the marshes of Lincolnshire, but well worth taking the time to the visit. Very highly recommended.
The Monument to Charles Bertie (1683 - 1727) and his wife Mary (d. 1725).
All Saints Church, Theddlethorpe, Mabelthorpe, Lincolnshire.
The monument with its two (of what can be described as late Baroque) statuary marble busts is inscribed by Andreas Charpentier / Andrew Carpenter (1677 - 1737).
The very impressive beautifully carved busts are slightly over life size.
This pair of busts are so good that I believe they are of national importance and should be replaced by casts and be displayed in a national museum.
It appears that they were not originally made for the monument but were incorporated on the death of Charles Bertie.
There is a (preparatory) drawing of the monument in Lincolnshire archives.
For some reason Pevsner was dismissive of these busts - I suspect he never saw them!
Bertie inherited Lindsey House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea from his
father in 1701.
He was MP for New Woodstock, Oxford 1705 - 08.
On 29 April 1714, he married Mary (d. 1725), daughter of Thomas Browne of Addlethorpe and widow of Nicholas Newcomen of Theddlethorpe.
On the occasion of his marriage to the rich widow, Mary Newcomen, he was described as ‘a gentleman remarkable for his adhesion to the loyal
principles of his noble ancestors, both by father and mother, and [for]
affection to her Majesty and the happy constitution in Church and state’(find source!).
The memorial to Nicholas Newcomen is also in the church.
After her death, on 13 February 1726, he married Mary Marshall, daughter of Rev. Henry
Marshall of Rector of Orby and Salmonby, Lincs.
Neither marriage produced any children and his estate went to his half-great nephew (the blind) Lord Albemarle Bertie (1720 - 65) the younger son of the Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster - and grandson of his half brother Robert.
For an useful brief biog. see -
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/bertie-hon-charles-ii-1683-1727
For the family history see also - https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2025/02/597-bertie-of-grimsthorpe-castle-and.html
For the Bertie Family monuments in Church at Edenham, Lincolnshire by Henry Cheere and Henry Scheemakers see my posts -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/11/monuments-in-church-at-edenham1.html
for the later monument by Charles Harris of the Strand see
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/11/monuments-in-church-at-edenham-2.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/11/monuments-in-church-at-edenham-part-3.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/11/monuments-in-church-at-edenham-part-4.html
For an interesting, enthusiastic and informative film about the church at Theddlethorpe see -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAyvkbPzHBg
..........................
Andreas Charpentiere - Andrew Carpenter. (c.1677 - 1737).
Carpenter, was described by George Vertue as ‘a Man in his time esteemd for his Skill’ (Vertue III, 83).
He was the most successful designer and modeller of lead garden figures in the
generation between John Nost I and John Cheere.
His early background is unknown, George Vertue, who knew him well, noted that ‘Charpentiere’ had been born between 1675 and 1677.
He was probably a native of the French-speaking Netherlands. Carpenter told Vertue that he had been instructed in ‘the rudiments of drawing’ by the French academician, Peter Eude, who had later settled in Scotland (Vertue IV, 35).
His origins are obscure but he was John Nost I’s (d.1710) principal assistant, engaged in modelling and carving over several years for Nost, before he set up independently by Hyde Park Corner (Vertue III, 83).
Carpenter’s name first appears in the rate-books in 1703, when he acquired premises in Portugal Row, Stone Bridge, Piccadilly close to the workshop of John van Nost I.
His early neighbours were predominantly French and included the Huguenot sculptor Henri Nadauld (1653 - 1724), the decorative painter Louis Laguerre and, from 1707 to 1714, and the ironsmith Jean Tijou. The English sculptor John Bushnell (d. 1701) and his two sons were also close neighbours and were still there in 1720.
Later neighbours working at Hyde Park Corner included John Cheere, Thomas Carter I, William Collins, Richard Dickinson and Thomas Manning.
It is not entirely clear but he will almost certainly have used moulds of original pieces previously made by John van Nost I.
Carpenter clearly prospered in his middle years, in 1718
he took a second site in Portugal Row, described in the rate-books as
‘workhouse and land.’ He also invested in property at Edgware, building ‘some
houses and an Inn’ on the outskirts of the Canons estate. Vertue relates that
the sculptor advertised his presence in the area with one of his own works ‘and
in the middle of the road way put up a statue for a sign’ (Vertue III, 83).
Chandos was incensed at this vulgarity, but the sculptor refused to remove the
figure.
J T Smith recorded that the Carpenter workshop stood on the site in Piccadilly later occupied by Egremont House commenced building c.1756 .
Charles Wyndham, second Earl of Egremont (d.1763) of Petworth, engaged Lancelot "Capability" Browne to design a garden at Egremont House, 94 Piccadilly, in London,
now better known as the ‘In and Out’, the former home of the Naval and Military
Club.
In 1756 Egremont bought the inn and buildings standing on the one-acre site overlooking Green Park, between White Horse and Half Moon Streets and backing onto Shepherd Market. The footprint shown by Rocque's map of 1746 has little changed since. For this he commissioned the architect Matthew Brettingham (d. 1769) senior to build a grand Palladian house.
For Capability Brown work on the garden at Egremont House, Piccadilly see.
https://londongardenstrust.org/Brown/Egremont.htm#fig1
For Nadauld see - https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=1930
1721/2 - Marble
figures (transport only) and the bronzing of ‘three heads’for Chatsworth House
to Chiswick House, Middx. untraced.
....................
On one visit to the workshop in May 1714 Ralph Thoresby recorded that as well as works in marble he also saw ‘curious workmanship’ by Carpenter in lead (Diary 2, 209) and leadwork appears to have been Carpenter’s mainstay.
In 1716 he supplied garden sculpture to the 1st Earl of Bristol and in 1722, an ‘abundance of works’ to the Duke of Chandos for Canons.
Drawing on van Nost’s earlier works, as well as classical and renaissance prototypes and his own innovations, Carpenter built up a substantial repertoire of lead figures.
The Castle Howard List.
Carpenters price list submitted to Lord Carlisle at Castle Howard who made purchases in
1723 gives some indication of the range as well as the dimensions and prices of
his garden ornaments:
A very interesting list which should be compared with the known output of lead figures supplied by John Cheere from his yard at Hyde Park Corner.
Feet Pounds
Cain and Abel 6' - £20
Hercules & Wild Boar 6' - £20
Dianna & Stagg 6' - £20
Narcifsus 7 1/2' - £27
Venus de Medici 6' - £15
Antonius 6' - £18
Saturnus 6' 1/2' 20
Triton 6'20
Bacchus sitting 6' 18
Faunus 6' 20
Meleager 6' 20
Adonis 6' 18
Apollo 6' 18
Flora 6'16
A Gladiator 6' 12
Duke of Marlborough 6' 28
Roman Wrestlers 20
Narcissus 5 1/2' 20 ?
Neptune 5' 1/2 9
Mercury 5' 1/2 10
Antinous 5' 8
Venus 5' 10
Do 5' 7
a Bagpiper 5' 10
An Indian 5' 8
Apollo 5' 9
Flora 5' 9
Mercury 5' 9
Cleopatra 5' 7
Daphne 5' 8
A French paisant & paisanne [two figures] 4' 10
Jupiter 4 1/2' - £6
Apollo 4' - £5
Winter & Autumn [2 :fig] 4 1/2' - £8:08:0
4 Signs of ye Zodiac 4' - £16
A faunus & Nimph [two figures] 4' - £8:08:0
Mercury & fame [two figures] 3' - £6:06:0
Apollo 3 1/2' - £3:10:0
Love & disdain [two figures] 31/2' - £8
A large vase 6' - £20
3 do 5' £24
1 do 4' £6
Boys and Girls £18:18:0
4 Large Bustos. £16
a pr of vase £7
6 vases 22
12 flower potts large & small 24
The list was not comprehensive, it does not include
Carlisle’s finally chosen figures.
The sculptor was also prepared to provide bespoke items:
Carlisle
paid £84 for his statues, supplied in 1725 - the Farnese Hercules, Spartan Boys? (poss Spinario), Sitting Venus and Faunus. The packing cases cost £9 7s 9d, and it took a workman
nine and a half days, twenty-one pounds of ‘spike’ and a thousand
‘double-tenns’ nails to prepare the works for the journey to Yorkshire.
Further statues were supplied by Carpenter to Castle Howard in 1731 - Sabina, Faustina, Crispina and Giulia Mamae and 4 Sybils - outside the Temple of the Four Winds
William Aikman visited Carpenter and several other Hyde Park Corner figure makers in November 1725 on behalf of Sir John Clerk of Mavisbank, Midlothian, Scotland and reported that although he was not impressed by the goods in stock it was possible to ‘get something done a-purpose after a good design’ (Fleming 1962 (1),
Packing and freight for leads required as much care as for marbles.
Paragraps below lifted from the Biog Dictionay Britiah Sculptors pub Yale 2009
In his later years Carpenter had business anxieties. He was increasingly obliged to give ‘time & study to Cast Leaden figures’ and complained that prices paid for work at this less prestigious end of the market were diminishing and that ‘he had much ado to hold up his head at last’ (Vertue III, 83).
In January 1736 he announced in the Daily Journal that he intended to
‘leave off entirely the casting of lead figures’ and intended to sell ‘his
entire stock of Statues of Figures in Hard Lead, Vases, Pots and Pedestals’.
Perhaps encouraged by two recently completed commissions for monuments at Bowden Cheshire (6, 7), he
advertised an intention to ‘apply himself solely to his other business, viz the
Statuary and Carving Part in Marble and Stone’ (ibid).
The advertisement had little effect. Carpenter is not known
to have won any further major commissions and ‘age and cares brought him to his
end’ in July 1737, aged a little over 60. He was buried in his parish church,
St George, Hanover Square (Vertue III, 83). In his will the sculptor left all
his ‘cottages, houses, lands, tenements and estate’ in Edgware to his wife Ann,
together with his chattels and shop contents. His son, John Carpenter, who ‘had
been an Idle fellow many years’ (Vertue III, 83) received the proverbial
shilling. Ann Carpenter continued to pay rates on the Hyde Park property and in
May 1744, a sale was held there of her late husband’s ‘Metal Statues or Figures
in Hard Lead ... together with his Moulds, Models and casts in Plaister’ (Daily
Advertiser).
........................
Monument to Montague Garrard (1698) and Jane (1724) Drake (designed by James Gibbs).
Andrew Carpenter
at Amersham, Bucks.
.....................
Two Monuments by Carpenter /Carpentier at St Mary's Parish Church, Bowdon, Cheshire.
St. Mary's Church, Bowdon, Cheshire, dedicated to members of
the Booth family. The first is for Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington (d.
1694), his wife Mary, and their family. The second is for Langham Booth (d.
1724) and Henry Booth (d. 1727).
The Old church was demolished in 1858 and a new church built incorporating some of the features of the old church.
The main one on the south wall dates from 1734 and includes the figures of Faith or Learning with a book and Prudence with a mirror and snake is to Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington and Baron Delamer of Dunham Massey and his wife Mary, sole heiress of the Langham family.
Henry was accused of high treason following the protestant Monmouth Rebellion and imprisoned three times in the Tower of London. He was tried before Judge Jeffreys (the Hanging Judge) in the House of Lords in 1685, but acquitted against the odds to later become Chancellor under King William III. The inscription describes his turbulent life. He died in 1693/94 aged forty-one.
The second is on the east wall, is to commemorate the two younger sons of the 2nd Earl of Warrington, Langham Booth (d.1724) and Henry Booth (d.1727). The work includes relief portraits of the two men, putti above and below and a magnificent achievement of arms with forty-eight quarterings.
For an useful introductory guide to the church with some excellent photographs of the old church see-
https://www.bowdonchurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Guide-to-Bowdon-Church-v.27-3-Nov-2015.pdf
I have used the images from this publication which will have to suffice until I visit.
https://friendsofbowdonchurchyard.org.uk/image-archive/
The South Aisle during demolition. 1858
....................
The Monument to Sir John Thorneycroft in the Parish Church of Our Lady of Bloxham.
c.1725/6.
Andreas Charpentier / Andrew Carpenter (1677 - 1737).
St Mary, Bloxham, Oxfordshire.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bwthornton/5731634616/in/photostream/
...............................
In the Dunham chapel at St. Mary's Church, Bowdon Cheshire are two stately monuments, one to lord Warrington, the other to two of his sons who died in early life, dated about 1727.
Dedicated to members of
the Booth family. The first is for Henry Booth, 1st Earl of Warrington (d.
1694), his wife Mary, and their family. The second is for Langham Booth (d.
1724) and Henry Booth (d. 1727)
It is interesting to note that both these monuments are signed by Andrew Carpenter who, like the Stantons, was sending his work into Cheshire
......................
The Fermor Monument, St Nicholas Church, Sevenoaks, Kent.
John Fermor (1674 - 1722) died of Smallpox and his brother Sir Henry Fermor were the sons of William Fermor and his wife Martha ( Thomas). Born
in Sussex they are both buried atSevenoaks, having lived at Knole Park.
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/fermor-john-1674-1722
It is inscribed below the central cartouche above the gadrooning.
A Carpenter Fecit
....................
Queen Anne (1665 - 1714).
Andrew Carpenter.
Inscribed Carpenter Fecit London 1712.
Marble.
Originally on the Moot Hall, Leeds, Yorkshire.
Height 198 cms.
Leeds Art Gallery
Art UK website
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/queen-anne-16651714-294975
.......................
Meleager and his dog.
Lead.
Height of Figure 161 cms.
Victoria an Albert Museum.
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O40991/meleager-statue-carpenter-andrew/
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/meleager-280013
They say - This figure probably surmounted a gate-pier. It was in the collection of Prince Littler, Chestham Park, Henfield, Sussex; sold at Christie's, 19th April 1977, lot 499; bought by T. Crowther & Son Ltd who applied for a licence to export it to Terrace Properties, St Vincent in 1984;
Anthony Radcliffe objected to the export, and it was bought by the Museum in 1985
for £16,100.
Photographed by the author May 2025.
.....................................
For the lead statue of Samson and the Philistine at Trent Park, Formerly at Stowe see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/samson-and-philistine-cain-and-abel-by.html
A payment of £34 of May 1737 is recorded in the Stowe accounts which might be for this group.
Better late than never! Carpenter died July 1737.
Samson slaying the Philistine.AKA Hercules and Cacus.
The Lead group by Andrew Carpenter, along with an Hercules and Anteus at Stowe in the 1730's, they had formerly stood on the sloping lawn in front of the Temple of Venus, as suggested in Samuel Boyse’s poem The Triumphs of Nature (1742).
In Whately’s Observations (pub. 1770) his French translator, M. Latapie, recorded the
presence of ‘several statuary groups in whitened lead ... the best of which are
Hercules and Anteus [and] Cain & Abel, both pieces full of vigour.’
These colossal lead groups were supplied by Andrew Carpenter
in the 1730s. The Hercules and Antaeus is first recorded in another part of the
garden in 1735; in 1756 Earl Temple decided to remove the Grenville Column to
its present position close to the Temple of Ancient Virtue, and the Hercules
and Antaeus took its place to the north-west of the Grecian Temple.
The Cain and Abel (see p. 18) was part of the original
iconographical scheme of the Temple of Venus and was moved to the far end of
the Grecian Valley in 1765.
These two groups, and a Hercules and the Boar, which also
stood at the north-eastern end, all celebrate the triumph of physical strength,
which would have supported the imperial programme of the valley when fully
established in the 1760s.
The original was taken to Trent Park. Enfield along with Hercules and Anteus in the 1923 at the final dispersal of objects from Stowe and re-erected by Sir Philip Sasoon.
.............................
For good measure -
The Two more mural monuments at Theddlethorpe.
.................................
Mural Monument to Mary Newcomen.
Daughter of Nicholas Newcomen and his wife Mary (nee Browne) the daughter of Thomas Browne of Addlethorpe, Lincs.
1694.
.........................
I also visited St Lawrence Church at Snarford, Lincs to see the three magnificent Tudor Monuments.
Also run by the Churches Conservation Trust - rather better cared for than Theddlethorpe - but the benign neglect at Theddlethorpe makes it a real treat to visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment