The Coade Artificial Stone Reliefs of Alfred and Ethelred at Keddleston - Some Notes

 

The medallions are derived from moulds produced by 'Bridges of Knightsbridge', an artificial stone manufacturer whose stock-in-trade was auctioned by Christie's on 26 May 1775. 

On 26 May 1775, Bridge's stock-in-trade, consisting of ‘a great Variety of Statues, Vases, Bustos, and various kinds of Ornaments in Artificial Stone’ was sold by Messrs Christie, on the occasion of his ‘quitting that Branch of Business’ (Public Ad, 24 May 1775, 4).

 

 Among the lots sold were medallions of the kings Alfred and Ethelred (8, 9); busts of Homer and Pitt (6, 7), statues of Ceres, Flora and Samson (2, 3, 5) and statuettes of Rubens and Van Dyck (4). A number of the lots, including a statue of a druid (1), were purchased by Eleanor Coade (see Coade Factory, of Lambeth). She also bought the Knightsbridge factory itself, for in December 1778 she announced that she intended to sell all the equipment of ‘Mrs COADE’s Manufactory at Knightsbridge ... the Whole to be sold extremely cheap, on Account of clearing the Premises, the Business being carried on at King’s Arms’ Stairs, Lambeth’ (Daily Ad, 24 December 1778). Some of Bridges’s moulds appear to have remained in use at the Coade factory, including those for the statue of a druid, which Bridges himself had probably acquired indirectly from George Davy of Spitalfields who appears to have taken over the Goulston Square business of Daniel Pincot

 

 Lots 8 and 9 in the sale were a pair of medallions of Alfred and Ethelred.

 Information here added to and adapted from the notes by Alice Rylance at the National Trust

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/Details/museum/107263

 

She reused Bridges' moulds at her factory, including moulds of the medallions of Alfred and Æthelred and the Druid (see 'A descriptive catalogue of Coade's artificial stone manufactory[...]', 1784, p. 15, Medallions, no. 298, [Head of] Alfred and no. 299 [Head of] Ethelred').

 

For other Coade Stone at Kedleston see the signed copies of the Borghese and Medici Vases after the antique (NT 109017.1 and 109017.2) and a pair of recumbent deer (NT 109016.1 and 109016.2).

 

The medallions were installed in Caesar's Hall sometime after 1769 as they are not listed in the 'Catalogue of the pictures, statues, &c. at Kedleston' published that year. They do, however, appear in a hand-written annotation in the so-called 'House Keeper's Book' of 1787 (held at Kedleston Hall) which was used by the then housekeeper Mrs. Garnett as she carried out guided tours of Kedleston Hall.

 

Portraits of both kings were probably loosely based on engravings: Æthelred II after an engraved portrait said to derive from a 'scarce coin' (see British Museum, London, 1943,0410.573), Alfred from an engraving by George Vertue made for Rapin's 'History of England' (British Museum, London, 1935,0522.3.74) which was reused by Benoist for Smollett's History of England, 1757 (British Museum, London, 1874,1010.80).

Bust of Homer .

 A Bust of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham - A version was sent to Harvard University, America by Benjamin Franklin. Another appears in the Coade Catalogue of the exhibits of the Coade's Westminster Bridge Gallery of 1799.

 Ceres Statue

Flora Statue

Samson

 A Druid.

 Rubens and Van Dyck, statuettes (the pair of figures after the originals by Rysbrack) - no Artificial Stone versions have appeared. see this post

 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/11/a-pair-of-statuettes-of-rubens-and-van.html    and the following essays.

 

 

 

Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 61; Valpy 1986, 217-8, 222; Kelly 1990, 34, 44-5, 134

 

 

Auction Catalogues: Bridges 1775; Coade Factory 1779.