Coadestone Bust of Caracalla indented Coade Lambeth 1792.

 

First Draft.

Updated 27 Jan 2025 with the details of the Foundling Hospital Bust

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, known as Caracalla, Emperor 211- 217 AD.

I have posted these images and notes for two reasons -

Firstly - I have had an abiding interest in the products from Mrs Coades manufactury in Lambeth for many years - I bought my first piece of Coade in 1979 a Laughing Philosopher keystone from dealer extraordinaire Paul Farnham.

A bust of Caracalla is mentioned in the Langford's sale catalogue of May 1762 of the contents of the Roubiliac workshops at St Martin's Lane.

The second reason for posting is the use of this particular form of socle or varients of it by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

Apart from a plaster bust of Cromwell at the Royal Academy, the use of this type of socle or variants in the 18th century is unique to Roubiliac.

The predominating historical sources for the rule of Caracalla are Cassius Dio and Herodian, both of whom portray the emperor in an overwhelmingly negative light. They focus on the martial elements of his character and question his fitness to rule over the empire, implying that his mother Julia Domna shouldered the administrative and domestic burden of his reign. 

Much of the historical reporting on Caracalla from these sources takes the form of reported gossip. Indeed, Herodias reports that rumours that Caracalla and his  mother were sexually involved were so current in Alexandria that she became widely known by the name of Oedipus’ mother Jocasta.

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The busts of Caracalla were much reproduced in ancient Rome and were of two basic types.

For Caracalla's sole reign two types of portrait have been distinguished - the first type breaks with tradition. It is characterized by a deep, grim, downward frown on the forehead. The head has a strong leftward rotation. This is the version that was much copied in the 18th century by Cavaceppi etc.

The second type represents Caracalla in the way we are used to seeing Roman Emperors: calm and composed. 

The first type has been assigned to the first years of Caracalla's sole reign, the second to 215-217 AD. Of the latter type, ten examples have survived, all found in Italy.

The bust  on the left below is an example of the first type of brooding bust although here the dress is on the left shoulder proper - - on the Cavaceppi and English versions it is on his right (proper) shoulder.

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The intention here is to investigate whether there might be a dirct link from the bust in the Roubiliac workshop included in Langford's sale catalogue of  May 1762, the life size plaster bust of Caracalla included in the 1777 catologue of Harris of the Strand, and the Coade Stone bust of Caracalla of 1792 illustrated here.

If the Coade version was taken from a plaster - either the Roubiliac sale version or a cast by Charles Harris - then it follows that the sculptor for the final finishing was probably by or supervised by John Bacon I.

I have written about the subject of these socles and its variants several times -

They appear to have been derived from a pair of busts in the Fitzwilliam Museum of the Marble importers, the brothers Christopher (c. 1737 - 1810) and Edward Chapman Bird (1715 - 92) by Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 1784).

see my essay on the marble workshops and wharfs at Westminster see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-suppliers-of-stone-and-marble-at.html

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For much more on the Roubiliac late type socles see 

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/05/marble-bust-of-laocoon.html

This bust of Laocoon was what initiated the study into the use by Roubiliac. of varios forms of this socle

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https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/12/monument-to-francis-hooper-from.html

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-roubiliac-type-socle-some-mor.html

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Bust of  Caracalla  in the Langford's Roubiliac Sale Catalogue of 1762

Lot 49. 3rd day of the sale  - The  Plaster Bust of Caracalla.

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Charles Harris of the Strand.

TheCatalogue of 1777.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/charles-harris-of-strand-plaster-casting.html

Page 12 - Life size busts including Caracalla and Laocoon at 2 Guineas.

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A marble portrait of Roman Emperor Caracalla by Michelangelo Buonarroti is shown in an exhibition in Rome in June 2014 from the Vatican Museums.

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The Foundling Hospital Plaster Bust of Caracalla.

The Roubiliac Sale of May 1762. The third day.

For a fairly in depth look at these busts see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/plaster-busts-at-foundling-hospital.html

 Under the heading Antique busts etc in Plaster 14 busts in all - lots 36 - 49.

 Lot 46 was Marcus Aurelius and Lot 49 was a bust of Caracalla. 

Esdaile ... Roubiliac 1929 .... states that a number of Artists at a meeting at the Turks Head on 7 December 1760, had agreed to appear on the 5 November in the following year ...........among those signing the paper recording the promise were Reynolds, Wilson and Roubiliac.

 Mrs Esdailes work was the first and until recently the only book on the works of Roubiliac

It is not entirely to be trusted and attributions etc need to be checked against modern researches.

Baker and Bindman published Roubiliac and the 18th Century Monument Yale 1995. but as the title suggests concentrates on his monuments 

She goes on to say that the busts were presented on the same day and that they bore his signature? and the date 7 November 1760. She had contacted the secretary Mr RW Nichols who had had the busts taken down and inspected but stated that any inscription had been obscured by the repeated coats of paint - (not unusual given that it was easier to repaint this type of object rather than laboriously clean them - a fate of many plaster objects and their surroundings from the 18th century). (My Italics).

 

In the ambiguous footnote she says " I have most unfortunately omitted to give my authority - an 18th century one - for my note: Foundling Hospital. Plaster Busts of M Aurelius and Caracalla L.F.R. Dec 7th 1760.

 

She then states that "The historian of the Foundling Hospital however states that the busts were presented by Richard Dalton (Print seller art dealer) - in 1754? but although this would exclude Roubiliac from the list of donors of works of art to the Hospital they may well have been his work. (this does not exclude John Cheere either) my italics! Certainly versions of these two busts appeared in his posthumous sale

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Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (Italian, 

A undated marble version by Bartolemeo Cavaceppi (1716/1717 - 1799) is at the Getty Museum.

In the early 18th Century Caracalla's likeness was known from a bust in the Farnese collection in Rome and then Naples, believed to date from the 200s. 

The Sculptor Bartolomeo Cavaceppi drew on this famous prototype for his marble bust of Caracalla. Carved during a period in which collectors bought sculptures all'antica, this bust was probably intended for an English collector's Neoclassical gallery.

https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103RSX

Another version of this bust by Cavaceppi is at the Norton Museum West Palm Beach, Florida. USA.

below

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Caracalla.

1757

 Marble bust by Claus.

 in the St Louis Museum of Art.

https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/54859/

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Caracalla and Townley.

Ancient Marble bust of Caracalla.

Type 2.

Much restored

Sotheby's Lot 19  - 3 July 2024.

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auction-catalogue/2024/master-sculpture-from-four-millennia-L24264/caracalla-a-rediscovered-bust-a-re-examined-rule

Prior to it appearing at the Sotheby’s sale, thisbust of Caracalla has been hidden from  scrutiny at Brocklesby Park for at least a century. Consequently, it has not been studied in person by a scholar since Michaelis visited Brocklesby in the 1870s and published his findings in Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882). Michaelis never doubted the bust’s antiquity, but scholars since then - who have made their judgments only from images rather than in-person inspection - had designated it as a modern replica of the 18th century.

 Recent scholarship has shown that the bust was once in the collection of Charles Townley, where it was described as ancient and originating from Naples. 

Townley, whose collection formed the nucleus of the British Museum, bought it from Thomas Jenkins. Both men were eminent connoisseurs of ancient sculpture in their own right, close to the source in Jenkins' case, and probably better attuned to the authenticity of ancient marbles than we are today.

The Drawing below attributed to the Scottish Artist John Brown.

Image courtesy British Museum

The Christies Caracalla

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6509611

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The Tomasso Brothers Marble Bust of Laocoon. 

https://www.tomasso.art/

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.

This bust of Laocoon with the distinctive socle was the bust that first led me investigate the later type of Roubiliac socle and to the discovery of  at least 16 busts by or attributable to Roubiliac using this type of socle

Roubiliac, uses the same socle on at least 16 different busts known to be from his workshop, including those socles on the four unsigned busts of Laocoon (Tomasso), Milo of Croton (Blenheim) called a despairing soul Lot 18 day first day of the Roubiliac sale), the Anima Dannata (the Damned Soul) after Bernini and a man depicted as the Good Roman Emperor Trajan at Goodwood House.

 At this point in the researches it is difficult to gauge when he first used this form of socle - possibly as early as 1746 (perhaps that on the Mary Okeover bust?) but more likely in the 1750's.

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,

 I can only find two other uses of this form of Socle by Joseph Wilton - the 1757 marble bust of Lord Chersterfield and a plaster bust of Oliver Cromwell at the Royal Academy.

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https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1777-0620-1

To be continued....................

John Bacon father and Son Sculptors at Bath Abbey -

 

John Bacon I (1740 - 99).

Lady Anna Miller nee Riggs (1741 - 1781).

The Monument at Bath Abbey was erected in 1785.

Anna Riggs was the daughter of Edward Riggs, and his wife Margaret nee Pigott, of Chetwynd, Shropshire. Her grandfather, Edward Riggs, had been a member of the Irish House of Commons, a commissioner of revenue, and a Privy Councillor in Ireland, and Anna inherited much of his wealth.

Her father became a commissioner of customs in London in 1741. Horace Walpole described Anna's mother in 1765 as an old rough humourist, who passed for a wit. Fanny Burney characterised her as mighty, merry and facetious,

In 1765 Anna married John Miller, a member of an impoverished old Irish family seated at Ballicasey, County Clare. Miller had served through the Seven Years' War, but resigned his commission at the peace of 1763. Anna brought with her a large fortune, and he took her maiden surname before his own.

At extravagant cost he built a house on the High Street at Batheaston, near Bath, and laid out a garden, of which Walpole gave a detailed description.

https://www.batheastonhouse.com/photos

John Miller became a baronet in 1778 and Anna became Lady Miller. She instituted a fortnightly literary salon at her villa at Batheaston. Lee characterised the salon as bearing "some resemblance to the later follies of the Della Cruscans". 

In Italy, Lady Miller had purchased an antique vase, dug up near Frascati in 1759. The vase was placed on an "altar" decorated with laurel, and each of her guests were invited to place in the urn an original composition in verse. 

Anna Riggs Miller’s Letters from Italy, published in 1776, recounts the Italian part of her Continental trip made in 1770 and 1771. the trip took them to Paris, where their son was born, and then on a very extensive tour of Italy.

A committee was appointed to determine the best three productions, and their authors were then crowned by Lady Miller with wreaths of myrtle. The practice was continued until Lady Miller's death.

Walpole, wrote unkindly in a letter to Henry Seymour Conway, said, "I am glad you went [to Bath], especially as you escaped being initiated into Mrs. Miller's follies at Bath-Easton.

Sir John Riggs-Miller died on May 28, 17989 and the title descended to his only son, born in 1770, upon whose death in 1825 the baronetcy became extinct.

 

https://ia601202.us.archive.org/35/items/ladymillerbathea0000hess/ladymillerbathea0000hess.pdf

Anna Seward, whose poetic talents were first encouraged by Lady Miller wrote the tribute inscribed on the monument.

Devoted stone! amidst the wrecks of time

Uninjured bear thy Miller’s spotless name:

The virtues of her youth and ripen’d prime,

The tender thought, th’ enduring record claim.

When clos’d the numerous eyes that round this bier

Have wept the loss of wide extended worth,

O gentle stranger, may one generous tear

Drop, as thou bendest o’er this hallow’d earth!

Are truth and genius, love and pity thine,

With liberal charity and faith sincere ?

Then rest thy wandering step beneath this shrine,

And greet a kindred spirit hovering near.

Fanny Burney gives a delightfully realistic, though not wholly flattering, picture of the Miller family, as she met them in 1780, when Mrs. Thrale had taken her to Bath. 

It was at the home of the Whalleys in Royal Crescent that the introduction took place, when Lady Miller asked Mrs. Thrale to present her to the author of Evelina. 

Said Mrs.Thrale:

“Miss Burney, Lady Miller desires to be introduced to you.”

"Up I jumped and walked forward; Lady Miller, very civilly more than met me half way, and said very polite things, of her wish to know me, and regret that she had not sooner met me, and then we both returned to our seats.

Do you know now that, notwithstanding Bath Easton is so much laughed at in London, nothing here is more tonish than to visit Lady Miller, who is extremely curious [select, particular] in her company, admitting few people who are not of rank or fame, and excluding of those all who are not people of character very unblemished.

Some time after, Lady Miller took a seat next mine on the sofa, to play at cards, and was excessively civil indeed —scolded Mrs. Thrale for not sooner making us acquainted, and had the politeness to offer to take me to the balls herself, as she heard Mr. and Mrs. Thrale did not choose to go.

After all this, it is hardly fair to tell you what I think of her. However, the truth is, I always, to the best of my intentions, speak honestly what I think of the folks I see, without being biased either by their civilities or neglect; and that you will allow is being a very faithful historian.

Well, then, Lady Miller is a round, plump, coarse looking dame of about forty, and while all her aim is to appear an elegant woman of fashion, all her success is to seem an ordinary woman in very common life, with fine clothes on. Her manners are bustling, her air is mock important, and her manners very inelegant.

So much for the lady of Bath Easton; who, however, seems extremely good-natured, and who is I am sure extremely civil".

The Millers were never fully admitted to the select inner circles of the Blue Stockings, though they did enjoy a high degree of popularity (as well as ridicule) for a period of over six years. 

The termination of the assemblies came with the sudden death of Lady Miller at the Bristol Hot Wells on June 24, 1781.

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The Frontispiece to Poetical Amusements .................

A vase on a pedestal; myrtle draped around. 

The vase was an antique Roman urn, found by a labourer in 1769 at Frascati. As a part of the ancient town of Tusculum, fifteen miles south of Rome, this had been the country seat of many wealthy Romans, including Cicero.

Mrs. Miller’s description, written in 1775, is as follows:

"It [the vase] is at present the receptacle of all the contending poetical morsels which every other Thursday (formerly Friday) are drawn out of it indiscriminately, and read aloud by the Gentlemen present, each in his turn. 

Their particular merits are afterwards discussed by them, and prizes assigned to three out of the whole that appear to be the most deserving. Their authors are then, and not before, called for, who seldom fail to be announced either by themselves, or, if absent, by their friends: Then the prize poems are read a second time to the company, each by its author, if present, if not if not, by other Gentlemen, and wreaths of Myrtle presented".

A selection of the compositions was published in 1775. The edition was sold out within ten days and a new edition appeared in 1776 with a second volume of poems. Horace Walpole described the book as "a bouquet of artificial flowers, and ten degrees duller than a magazine". A third volume was published in 1777, and a fourth in 1781. 

The profits of the sale were donated to charity. Among the contributors were the Duchess of Northumberland, who wrote on a buttered muffin, Lord Palmerston, Lord Carlisle, Christopher Anstey, William Mason, David Garrick, Anna Seward, and Lady Miller herself, to whom most of the writers paid extravagant compliments.

The Urn had been purchased after her death by one Edwyn Dowding, and was placed in the public park of Bath. It has now disappeared.

The Urn now in Victoria Park, Bath often described as Lady Millers Urn is not the Batheaston Urn.

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The Frontispiece to Poetical Amusements at a Villa near Bath.

 Printed by R. Cruttwell, for L. Bull, bookseller, in Bath: and sold, in London, by Hawes, Clarke, and Collins, 1775.

Available on line -

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101037041777&seq=9

Image below from -

http://george3.splrarebooks.com/collection/view/the-batheaston-vase-adorned-with-myrtle-w.-hibbert-bath

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Drawing no 105, from the book of Designs of Thomas Parsons of Claverton St, Widcombe, Bath.

see my post

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-parsons-of-bath-18th-century-stone.html

https://ia601202.us.archive.org/35/items/ladymillerbathea0000hess/ladymillerbathea0000hess.pdf

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Notes on Bacon Snr.

Two years after she and her mother bought into Artificial Stone factory at Lambeth, Eleanor Coade fired Daniel Pincot and promoted a talented young employee, the sculptor John Bacon, to take his place and help her reinvent Pincot’s formula and production process.

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John Bacon II. (1777 - 1859).

The Herman Katencamp Monument - 

Inscribed J Bacon Junr. Sculptor, London, 1808.

Herman came to Exeter from Bremen to work in the Baring counting house and married at Holy Trinity, Exeter in 1747 an Exeter woman, Ann Moor.

For an useful biog. of the Katencamps see -

https://www.doccombeparishscapes.co.uk/post/the-katenkamps-the-trials-tribulations-of-a-devon-merchant-family

The Wicksteeds and Thomas Worlidge in Bath.

 

Thomas Worlidge (1700 - 1766) sometimes referred to as The English Rembrandt.

                                   John Wicksteed (d. 15 Dec1754) Seal cutter of Lyncombe, Bath.

The origins of the Wicksteed family remain obscure. There were several Wicksteeds working in London in the 18th Century who might have been related.

The name appears to have originated from Cheshire.

 

John Wicksteed’s wife Sarah Wicksteed had the shop was on the Corner of Orange Grove, Bath nearest the Abbey from c 1732 – 67. 

The house survives although much altered on the frontage in the early 20th century (see photographs below). 

Most of the retailers in business and selling fancy goods in Orange Grove in the 18th century can also be identified.

The shop on the parade at Orange Grove with the shop closest to the East end of the Abbey Church and the first to have a bow-fronted display window, was John Wicksteed's, toyman, china-dealer and seal-engraver.

His wife Sarah probably tended the shop from c.1727 while he himself managed the water-powered jewelling-mill ('Wicksteed's Machine') that he had set up in Lyncombe in about 1729.

 A signboard over the door in Orange Grove advertised 'Stone Seals', meaning the coats-of-arms, crests and ciphers he engraved on Brazilian pebblestone at this mill and set in gold mounts.

I suspect that some intaglios previously attributed to Burch, Marchant and Tassie are in fact by Wicksteed. 

I am as yet unaware of any intaglios that can be positively identified with Wicksteed's productions but given the length of time that he was in business I am hopeful that some of his products well reappear.

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Some notes John Wicksteed of Bath - 

here adapted from Bath Commercialised by Trevor Fawcett.  2002.

The Seal Engravers.

The chief use of a seal was to authenticate documents, though there was snob value too in wielding a personalised seal that bore a family device or coat of arms. Moreover, the mechanical craft of seal engraving shaded off into gem engraving with its pleasing overtones of Classical Antiquity.

Both aspects, utilitarian and aesthetic, were present in this specialist Bath trade datable to c.1732 when John and Sarah Wicksteed opened a 'toyshop' in Orange Grove which offered the additional service of bespoke intaglio seals. John Wicksteed's workshop may have remained in Bathampton at this point, but in about 1729 he re-sited it in Lyncombe Vale just off Ralph Allen Drive on the rout to Prior Park House.

 This proved an inspired move, for 'Wicksteed's Machine' - named after his water-powered 'jewelling mill' - soon became a favourite spot to visit, a curiosity of the neighbourhood out of which a tea garden, the Bagatelle, would eventually emerge. Orders could be placed at the Orange Grove shop, whose prominent sign, 'STONE SEALS', announced the engraved 'Brazil pebble' insignia set in gold which were still the main product.

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John Wood I, the Bath Architect and John Wicksteed.

"The Art of Engraving Seals was brought to Bath, about seventeen Years ago [c. 1725], by Mr John Wicksted; and he fixed his Machine at Hamton, (Bathampton) removing it afterwards to the Junction at the lower Parts of Widcomb and Lyncomb, where it now remains in a small Building, for which I made a Design on the 15th of August, 1737, every Way suitable to the Vaste and Spirit Of our Artist; but a Proposal by his Engineer, and others, to erect it with common Wall Stone to be first Plaistered; and then Painted to imitate Brickwork; was such an Instance of whim and Caprice, that when I got the Draughts I had made into my Possession, I never parted them again. This was to have been two and thirty feet square, of the Dorick order one storey high and covered with a pyramidal roof in the vertex of which the funnels of the chimneys were to rise up” –from  Wood’s An Essay towards a description of Bath, 423.

 

The land on which Wicksteed’s Mill and house were located were leased for 99 years from 1729 from Mr Phillip Bennet of Widcombe Manor – See - A Survey of the the Parish of Widcombe taken by order of Vestry Augst 22d :1737.

However, on John Wicksteed's death in 1754, his son James Wicksteed (d.1824) seems to have branched out, first exploiting the more creative vein of cameo miniatures, and later (1769) developing a small spa and the Bagatelle garden on the Lyncombe site.

Subsequent events were dictated by a family quarrel. James Wicksteed sold the Bagatelle property in 1773 and departed for London, working as an engraver at Mays Buildings in St Martin’s Lane in 1779 and later 30 Henrietta Street Covent Garden abandoning the seal business in Bath to his estranged son Edward (d. 1778).

Then for eight years (1778-86) Edward’s widow Mary, with a young family to support, kept the firm going in premises (still dubbed 'Wicksteed's Machine') at the New Bridge (Pulteney Bridge).

Here she employed several skilled men and sold through the toyshops - all in the face of bitter competition from her father-in-law, James Wicksteed, who had returned to the Bath fray.

James Wicksteed lived briefly at 39 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden with the painter George Stubbs where he worked as an engraver and gem engraver.

Both Wicksteeds, though, had died by summer of 1787 leaving the field open to Anthony Vere, a London seal engraver equipped likewise with a 'machine' as well as a collection of heraldry books for reference. (See Bath Chronicle 20 Dec 1787), Vere “engraver of seals at his home opposite the Pump Room & his collection of heraldry may be inspected” In 1763 his address was in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden (Mortimers Directory).but was probably spending the Winter season in Bath.

Vere had worked during the Winter season at Bath since c.1779, and besides sculpting cameos, engraving metallic, jewelled and figured seals, and setting gems, he accepted copperplate commissions for bookplates and visiting cards.

The Bath printer-engraver William Hibbert was retailing black cipher seals in 1776.

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The Handbill Dated 1741.

Referring to the Mill on the Road leading to Prior Park the House of Ralph Allan.

Advertisement in the Bath Journal - 2 April 1761.

Note the reference to likenesses taken.

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George Speren (1711 -  96).

At the Fan and Orange, Orange Grove Bath

Orange Grove, Bath, looking South 1737.

The Wicksteed’s shop is on the far right with the bay windows.

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Orange Grove c. 1733 - 34.

Here is image of a fan leaf engraving by Jonathan Pinchbeck of 1737.

   Pinchbeck at The Fan and Crown, New-Round Court, Strand, London.

'June 3, 1738.

This day is Published on a Fan Mount (Fit for the Second Mourning or in colours) An accurate and lively Prospect of the celebrated Grove at Bath, whereon the rural Pleasures and exact Decorum of the company are curiously represented, with some cursory Observations on the Behaviour of Sundry Persons, particularly the famous B. N.

' Likewise the rural Harmony and delightful Pleasures of Vaux-Hall Gardens. Also the Royal Repository, or Merlin's Cave ; being an exact Emblem of that beautiful Structure erected by the late Queen in the Royal Gardens at Richmond.

'Sold wholesale or retail at Pinchbeck's Fan Warehouse, etc., by Mr. Crowbrow, at the India House on the Walk and at Mr. Dalassol's and Mr. Weakstead' Shops in the Grove at Bath.'

Image courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Marked No. 8 in series; inscribed "Published by I Pinchbeck according to Act of Parliament.

https://dn790002.ca.archive.org/0/items/historyoffan00rhea/historyoffan00rhea.pdf

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Here is another image of a fan leaf engraving by Jonathan Pinchbeck of 1737. 

                                     The Fan and Crown, New-Round Court, Strand, London.

                                   View of Orange Grove looking East to Nassau House.

                                     The Wickstead's Shop is nearest to the viewer on the right

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From Ansteys New Bath Guide, first published in 1766.

This is written in rhymed epistles, and deals with the adventures of the B—r—d Family at Bath, with the Consultation of Physicians, the Gaming Rooms, the Balls, the Bathing, and the Public Breakfasts. 

Young “B—r—d,” who commences Man of Taste and Spirit,” describes his costume in the following lines :

 

“ I ride in a Chair with my Hands in a Muff,

And have bought a silk Coat, and embroidered the Cuff.

But the Weather was cold, and the Coat it was thin,

So the Taylor advised me to line it with Skin.

But what with my Nivernois Hat can compare,

Bag-wig and laced Ruffles, and black Solitaire

 And what can a Man of true Fashion denote.

Like an Ell of good Ribbon tyed under the Throat.

My Buckles and Box are in excellent Taste,

The one is of paper, the other of Paste,

And sure no Camayer (cameo) was ever yet seen,

 Like that which I purchased at Wickstead’s machine.

My Stockings of Silk arc just come from the Hozier,

For to-night I'm to dine with the charming Miss Tozer."

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Thomas Robins at Bath.

Robins advertised in the Bath Journal on 30 October 1752 that he was a 'Painter' who taught at Mr Sperin's Toy-Shop in the Grove, Bath, gentlemen and ladies at reasonable rates 'The Art of Drawing and Painting in Watercolours: Where his Drawings and Paintings may be seen. Likewise Perspects and Prospective Views of Gentlemens Seats in the correctest Manner.