Sunday, 9 August 2026

Coade - The Statues of Time (Chronos) and a Druid.

 


The Yale version of the Coade Catalogue of 1784.

The trade card title plate on the cover is engraved by P. Wray, after Charles Reuben Ryley.

The other engraved plates are not signed.





Time / Chronos from the Yale Catalogue.

The is no size or price list withtths catalogue.








The National Arts Library Descriptive Catalogue.

Lacks the Engravings but includes the sizes and prices.

Times is described as height 6 ft and cost - £31 10s.




The Bibliotheque Nationale has the most complete catalogue which can be viewd on line -

https://bibliotheque-numerique.inha.fr/viewer/35774/?offset=#page=5&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=

The BN engraving - the only difference with the Yale version of the Catalogue is that the statues are numbered.

Time is no. 20 and the Druid is no. 21.





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A figure of Time or Chronos by Coade and dated 1792 was sold Christie's at Wrotham Park, 21st June 1994, lot 199.

There are two variants on this theme by Coade are known to have been produced; the first type, with sickle to his right hand and an hour glass resting in the palm of his left hand. 

The second type as offered in the Wrotham Park sale has an hour glass in his left hand but his right arm is raised to support a sundial. 

The modelling perhaps relates to that of Coade's River God figure, noted in the catalogue of 1784, which can be safely attributed to the sculptor John Bacon (d.1799), with whom Mrs Eleanor Coade (d.1796) was in partnership (see A. Kelly, op cit p.62). 

The same Chronos figure is featured alongside the sarcophagus of Dame Anne Henniker (d.1793) in Rochester Cathedral (image below) and its design appears to have been mistakenly attributed to the sculptor Thomas Banks in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, part 1, p.410. (see A. Kelly, op cit p.250).

 

An engraving with Father Time is also featured as the frontispiece to the book of etchings of Coade's Gallery, which also includes this figure (see Kelly, p.66). 

Another sun-dial commissioned by the architect Sir John Soane (d.1837) is discussed by A. Kelly, Sir John Soane and Mrs Eleanor Coade, Apollo, 1989; while 

Another purchased by James Baxter for his Turnham Green house in July 1818 was described as "A statue of Time with scythe and hour-glass complete with rustic plinth. 18 pounds. (A. Kelly, op cit, 1990, p.144).

A six foot figure of Time is listed as item no.20 in A Descriptive Catalogue of Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory of 1784.



The Yale Version - Type 1.






The Sandringham Version.

From Art uk website





















The Summers Place Auction version.

Lot 4 - 26 September 2023.


seated on a rock, holding an hour glass, stamped Coade, London 1792.

with bronze sundial engraved I. Coggs, London fecit


https://app.summersplaceauctions.com/en/auction/gs260923-home-garden-natural-history/4-a-rare-coadestone-figure-of-father-time



















































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Christies Lot 69 -20 June 2013. 















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Christie's Wrotham Park  - 21 June 1994.

A RARE COADE STONE SUNDIAL FIGURE OF CHRONOS, the winged, bearded god seated and supporting a platform disc on his head, on a naturalistic rocky base, signed COADE LONDON 1792 (damages and losses) 149cm overall.

Probably the Chronos with Messrs Seago in the 1990's.






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The Rochester Cathedral Henniker Monument.

One of the grandest monuments in the Cathedral is to Dame Ann Hennicker (d.1792), featuring two allegorical figures of Truth and Father Time produced from artificial Coade stone, developed by notable early British businesswoman Eleanor Coade.

 

Dame Ann Henniker passed away on the 18th July 1792, aged 65. Her husband Lord John Henniker was the son of a Russian Merchant dealing in Leather and Furs and Freeman of Rochester.  He erected a grand marble monument to his late wife in the south nave aisle. 


At the top of the monument, below the Hennicker family arms, records:

 

‘In a vault near this Monument is deposited all that was mortal of DAME ANN HENNIKER, late the Affectionate Wife of SIR JOHN HENNIKER of Newton Hall, and Stratford in the County of Essex Bart. He Represented Sudbury in the first Parliament of His Present Majesty, and in two successive Parliaments in the Town and Port of Dover in this County.’

 

The inscription on the marble sarcophagus below reads:

  

'‘She was the eldest Daughter of Sir JOHN MAJOR BART. of Worlingworth Hall in the County of Suffolk Member for Scarborough, and Coheiress with her surviving Sister ELIZABETH DOWR. DUTCHESS of  HENRY DUKE OF CHANDOS. Two sons JOHN late Member for New Romney, And BRYDGES TREGOTHICK Lieutt Coll of His Majestys 9th Regiment of Dragoons,  and one Daughter ANN ELIZABETH COUNTESS of Aldborough, are left with the Disconsolate & much Afflicted Husband, to mourn Her loss, who, after 45 Years of Conjugal Felicity, in the Practice of every Virtue resigned Her Soul to God, at Bristol Hotwells the 18 of July 1792 Aged 65. Her second Son Major Mercht. of London died the 3d. of Feby. 1789, and lies buried at Stretham: he left 5 Children, vizt. JOHN MINET, MARY ANN, MAJOR JACOB, ELIZABETH FALL, & BRYDGES JACKSON, ALL INFANTS, NOW LIVING.’

 

 















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The Artificial Stone Druid.

To my knowledge there are three almost complete Artificial Stone Druids - all appear to have eminated from the Coade Manufactory. There are other versions in the "Ruin" at Shugborough and the Vyne in Hampshire.

The Croome Court Version, marked Coade 1793.

This appears to be the best preserved version  - it is very close in form to the Priory Park, Chichester version and Erdigg version which are the same as the engraving in the Coade Cartalogue but the headress with oak leaf crown is entirely different.

This version was also restored by Cliveden Conservation.



















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The Erdigg Druid.

Inscribed Coade.

Some truly awful photographs are on the National Trust website.

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1151805









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The 1776 Priory Park Druid, Chichester.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonyjc/39482233930/

The statue was originally placed above a water supply in South Street in 1776. 

The Council had decided that a new conduit should be built in South Street at the north end of the fish shambles or market. A pedestal would be built there with a cornice designed by the Mayor and with a pump placed above a tank four feet across and ten feet deep.

James Spershott's record of Chichester events states that 'the new conduit was then built in the South Street and a stone image of one of the ancient druids set upon it and a large reservoir made under ground'.

No reason has been found for the early dismantling of the conduit in South Street about 20 years later.

 Possibly its long medieval pipework failed. The homeless statue was lodged in a passage leading to the Council Chamber where, back in civic control. A decision for its sale,arranged by the Mayor, was made in October 1800. its new owner was William Guy, the surgeon who lived in West Street. When he died in 1825, he and the figure were interred together in the family vault in Chichester Cathedral. The statue remained at the tomb entrance below ground for some 45 years. Around 1870 the statue was removed from the entrance of the vault. Its fate during the next three years is unclear, but the right arm needed repair. In 1873 the West Sussex Gazette noted that the druid had at last found a proper resting-place: it was presented to the Priory Park Society by Dr W A Guy of King's College, London, grandson of the surgeon.



In 2019, Chichester District Council commissioned Cliveden Conservation to restore and repair their druid. The conservators were responsible for repairing the two druids at National Trust properties.

 

The druid’s right arm was separated at the shoulder and broken in several places. The right hand, which grasps an oak stave, was in poor condition. There was also some surface damage, and past repairs and previous painting had been carried out with unsuitable materials.


Image below from 

https://chichesterlocalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/No.26-2010.pdf