Bath, Art and Architecture: Some more notes on the Artificial Stone Industry in London prior to the takeover of pincot's Manufactory in 1770.

Monday, 21 September 2026

Some more notes on the Artificial Stone Industry in London prior to the takeover of pincot's Manufactory in 1770.

A complicated subject - the idea here is to pull the various strands of research together - it can, at this stage only be a series of notes and links.

Literature -

Batty Langley's Early Years in London, 1729-35: Langley Hans Sloane and Artificial Stone.

ChristineMcaleavy Garden History, Vol. 44, No. 2 (WINTER 2016), pp. 191-208 (18 pages).

Available on line via https://www.jstor.org/stable/44987901

The English Ceramic Circle Transactions of 1986, Vol. 12 part 3. This is the most important source for references to the early production of Artificial Stone by Holt, Batty langley and Daniel Pincot

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Both Mrs Valpy asnd Alison Kelly appear not to be aware of the Artificial Stone made by Thomas Manning and enlarged upon here.

It may be coincidence but Batty Langley was

In the midst of his prolific book writing, Langley decided that he needed a patron. He recognised that Sir Hans Sloane, the royal physician and collector, was a potential source of support. The first surviving letter from Langley to Sloane was written on 12 May 1727,

Langley's address being given as lodgings with a 'Mr Manning, a Broker at the end of Leather Lane in Holbourn'. In the letter Langley asked for sponsorship of a new gardening book, emphasizing his patriotic credentials which set him apart from other gardening writers.

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Thomas Manning and Artificial Stone.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-lead-original-from-parham-park-in.html

Thomas Manning d. 1747. not to be confused with the several other members of the extensive Manning family of masons and sculptors.

'Thomas Manning' who is described in John Nost I's will of 1710 as 'my manservant,' and was left a suit of apparel (LMA AM/FW 1710/89).

It is likely that he learned his craft as an assistant to van Nost.

His earliest recorded works date from 1720 and were sent, at a cost of £l 17s, by 'Waggon and car' to Gough Park, Enfield - they were Fame, Mercury £12 guineas and Neptune £21 also two boars £8 8s.and two large vases £25 presumably of lead (Davis).

Richard Gough, the antiquary was the most eminent person to live at Gough Park, a house his father Harry had bought in 1719.

The house at Gough Park was demolished shortly after 1900 and a planned replacement building never built. Some of the brickwork from the site was salvaged by E.A. Bowles, the famous botanist and plantsman, and taken to Myddelton House. These included part of a pillar and some other unidentified stonework and were placed in the garden. Two lead ostriches that were originally on the roof of Gough Park overlooking the garden at the rear of the house were also taken to Myddleton House. Also two lead boars that were originally displayed on pillars at the entrance to the house, but they have since been stolen. Some original wrought ironwork forming part of the boundary wall still remains at Gough Park.

In 1729 Manning moved into a property in Portugal Row next door to Catherine Nost which was, from 1734, next door to the sculpture workshops of Thomas Carter I. His premises were initially rated at £8, but his business must have expanded by 1737, when he had two properties in the street, rated at £10 and £12.

In 1734 Samuel Carter moved into a yard next door rated at £12 annually on Portugal Row, previously occupied by Catherine Nost (check this!). The Carter workshop stood here for over fifty years. His immediate neighbour was Thomas Manning.

He appears to have taken over the second premises from Andrew Carpenter, who died that year. By 1744 he had taken over another property, with tenants, in the street, renamed White Horse Street in 1737.

In 1735 Manning supplied a statue of Britannia to the London Assurance Company of King William Street in Westminster, one of the earliest recorded works in artificial stone? produced in this country.

This statue of Britannia has disappeared but it is tempting to suggest that the Sotheby's River God illustrated here is also a product of Manning in "artificial Stone".

Manning stood as a character witness in the trial of Mary Johnson, otherwise Sudley, otherwise Barker, on 5 December 1746, who was accused of the theft of a gold ring from a William Archer.

Manning described himself as a 'Master Statuary of "Hide - Park" and testified that the defendant had 'lived in two houses of mine for these two years'. The properties were in 'White-horse street, just as you go down the hill' (POB 1674—1834, ref t17461205-24).

Manning died in 1747. An obituary describes him as 'an ingenious statuary near Hyde Park Corner' - Gentleman's Magazine 1747, 545).

In his will, PROB 11/758/131 proved on 19 November 1747, he left his stock in trade, utensils, chattels, books, plate and his house on the corner of White Horse Street to his wife Mary.

Another 'little house' in White Horse Street was left jointly to his wife Mary and his mother, Elizabeth, together with the lease of three houses and a stable on the same street.

He mentions two brothers, Edward and Arnold, to whom he left the proverbial one shilling and his nephews, Thomas and John Manning (PROB 11/758/6).

The Lead Reclining Statue at Parham Park in Sussex and the Artificial Stone River God originally at Hagley.

It is very obviously related to the lead river god now at Parham. The figure was brought to Parham by Robert Curzon from Hagley Hall in Staffordshire in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Here attributed to Thomas Manning (d.1747) of Portugal Row (later Picadilly) and White Horse Street.

The life size terracotta /artificial stone river god was sold by Sotheby's Lot 133. 9 July 1987. Length 180 cms. Current location unknown. - where is it now?

It appears to have been fired in two halves.

Prior to the terracotta River God appearing at Sotheby's, I had seen it in a garden of a house which was being developed in Kingsbury St (East side) Marlborough in 1986.

I am very grateful to Christopher Mason and Eleanor Goldthorpe of the Sculpture Department at Sotheby's for providing the 1987 Sotheby's Catalogue entry.

The Manning River God at Stourhead

Henry Hoare Ledger 1734-49, 28 January 1743/44, ‘Thos Manning for a River God &c’ £15-15s. Anonymous 1764 (Stourton Gardens 1749), p. 102 -

‘For yonder silver god they sigh, they burn, | And pour their tears incessant thro’ his urn; | But cold as lead, and deaf when they complain, | Supine he lies, and they but weep in vain. | See from beneath him (tinctur’d by the sun | With colours radiant) sheets of water run’.

WSA, 383/907(1), Henry Flitcroft to Henry Hoare, 25 August 1744, ‘My Next shall bring you… the Temple of Ceres with the Rocky Arch in which I propose to place the River God, & a Sketch how I conceive the head of ye lake’;

Henry Flitcroft to Henry Hoare 7 September 1744, ‘I have inclosd to you the Plan & Elevation of ye Temple of Ceres with a Sketch of ye Entablature showing how the Tryglyphs & Metops should be proportioned with the Skuls &c introduced therein… I have also sent a plan & Section for the Manner of Laying the Foundations… a Section of ye inside of this Building shall be soon sent, with particular drawing of ye Doorcase & pedestal Mouldings’. Payments to William Privett which may relate to the Temple of Flora: HH Ledger 1734-49; 27 September 1745, ‘on accot of ye Temple’ £40; 3 November 1746, ‘in full of all Demands’ £28-8s-1d; 30 March 1747, ‘on accot of Buildg’ £30. C. Hoare & Co., HB/5/A/6, Partners’ Ledger 1742-51, HH account, 5 October 1745, ‘His Bill to Willm Privet (Mason)’ £40; 30 December 1745, ‘Willm Privet of Chillmark’s Bill’ £30.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-lead-original-from-parham-park-in.html

The Sotheby's River God.

Thomas Manning (d.1747).

Terracotta / Artificial Stone.

Fired in two halves - the joint is obvious.

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The Other River God at Stourhead.

Presumably cast in lead but it is concievably the Sotheby's - Marlborough terracotta / artificial stone version.

Thomas Manning (d.1747).

There were two river gods at Stourhead - the one in the grotto which survives by John Cheere and the reclining figure which is missing.

https://drawingmatter.org/the-temple-of-flora-stourhead-a-paradise-revisited/

Henry Flitcroft (1697–1769), elevation, Rocky Arch (the Cascade below the Temple of Flora), Stourhead, c.1744.

This is an extract from Stourhead, Henry Hoare's Paradise Revisited by Dudley Dodd pub. 2021.

Maybe not the last word on the architecture and sculpture in the garden at Stourhead but the best work on the subject to date - and highly recommended!

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The Temple of Flora, Stourhead, Wiltshire, designed by Henry Flitcroft (1697–1769). 1753.

the drawing here attributed to Flitcroft.

Here the pose of the statue is reversed.

The temple presides over springs which provided water to the village. It was designed by Flitcroft, built by William Privett, 1744–5 and first dedicated, by Henry Hoare, to Ceres. [1] Flitcroft’s letters indicate the temple replaced an earlier structure. The Doric portico is limestone from the Chilmark quarry while the temple itself is greensand stone, rendered at the sides and exposed at the rear. The tiled roof was renewed in 1842 and the building restored in 1842 and the building restored in 1894. [2]

The story of the temple is complex to unravel. It housed the marble statue of Livia Augusta as Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture or, in Greek mythology, Demeter, the mother of Persephone and instigator of the Eleusinian mysteries. After Henry moved her to the Pantheon, c.1760, he rededicated the temple to Flora, goddess of fertility and flowers. Above the entrance is inscribed Procul, o procul este profane (Begone, you who are uninitiated), resonating nicely with the Eleusinian mysteries, but this well-known quotation from Virgil is first documented at Stourhead in 1787. [3]

Hanway, 1756, described:

the temple of Ceres, which is on the side of the water nearest to the village… Eight or ten feet below, level with the water, in the subterraneous grotto, is another figure of the river god.