Monday, 19 May 2025

The Three Busts of Thomas Bodley at Oxford redux.

 


I have recently been looking at the socles of the busts of Louis Francois Roubiliac 1702 - 62.

This research was inspired by a request to identify the identity of the sculptor of a bust of the bearded father in the antique Laocoon Group. 

The form of the socle immediately rang bells - I had recently visited Tittleshall Church in Norfolk to photograph the pair of busts by Roubiliac on the monument to Thomas Coke and his wife Margaret nee Tufton.

This then led me to the investigation into the other busts by Roubiliac which utilised the same socle - and this which eventually brought me to the plaster busts of Thomas Bodley at Oxford.

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The socles on the two plaster busts of Bodley have the same socle as those on a series of  at least 15 busts by or confidently attributable to Roubiliac.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/louis-francois-roubiliac-joseph-wilton.html



This form of socle is unique to Roubiliac with the single exception of that on a marble bust of Lord Chesterfield by Joseph Wilton inscribed I. WILTON:fecit: ad Vivum.1757 (British Museum aquired 1777) which has a gilt bronze cartouche on the front face of the socle - there is a plaster cast of this bust including the socle at the Rangers House, Blackheath. Currently I can find no further examples of Wilton's use of this form of socle

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


This form of socle is the same as that on the two plaster busts of Thomas Bodley at Oxford illustrated below.

It occurs to me that the manufacture of the socles were perhaps carved by a member of the Roubiliac workshop or an apprentice or even subcontracted to an outside sculptor. Henry Cheere certainly used sub contractors including Colbert Woods of Little Sanctuary Westminster who he used to finish his polishing. (see Craske, Silent Rhetoric... pub Yale)



In order to make the plaster casts of Bodley sit on their socles, the cast taken from the original Bodleian bust, has had the trunk extended by a very competent sculptor.

It is more than tempting to suggest given the evidence of the use of the Roubiliac type socle here that this cast might have been made in the workshop of Roubiliac.

Roubiliac is known to have reproduced his busts in plaster - his posthumous sale catalogue of May 1762 includes  numerous busts and piece moulds suggesting that the casts were made in his workshop in St Martins Lane at least from 1740 when he took it over.

For the Roubiliac Sale Catalogue 12 May and the three following days see -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-roubiliac-sale-catalogue-with-list.html


I have contacted Merton College and will contact the Bodleian in due course.

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The Three Busts of Thomas Bodley compared.

The Bodleian Library Plaster the Bodleian Stone Bust and the Merton College Bust



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The  Marble Bust of Laocoon.

with Tomasso Brothers of London and Leeds.

Here attributed to Roubiliac.



Image courtesy Dino Tomasso of Tomasso Brothers, London and Leeds, Sculpture and Works of Art.

https://www.tomasso.art/

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Below are further examples of  the use of the Roubiliac type socle.




Further examples of this form of Roubiliac socle appear on the 12 following busts:

Sir Peter Warren marble at the Huntington, the Charles I Terracotta at the Courtauld, Shakespeare at the Folger Library, John Bamber on the monument in Barking Church , Princess Amelia marble in the Fitzwilliam, the pair of busts on the monument to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester and his wife in the church at Tittleshall, Norfolk, the plaster of Thomas Coke is at Holkham, the marble of Lord Leicester at Holkham (seen in an engraving) on 5 drawings by Nollekens of the busts at the posthumous Roubiliac sale in the Harris Collection in Preston Museum and on several other busts which can now fairly safely attributed to him.

These are illustrated here -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/louis-francois-roubiliac-joseph-wilton.html

Below is the drawing of  Lord Leicester (inscribed Lister) by Nollekens

One of a series of 7 drawings

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-harris-museum-preston-drawings-of.html

These drawings are attributed to sculptor Joseph Nollekens (1737 - 1823).

 It has been suggested that they had been drawn at the studio of Roubiliac in St Martin's Lane sometime around the time of the sale on 12 May 1762 and the following three days.

 This would have been just before Nollekens departed for Italy. On 21 May he had received the last and greatest of his 5 prizes from the Society of Arts and having won in all £123 18 shillings. Richard Hayward noted his arrival in  Rome with Jiacomo Freys son on 11 August - a droll account of his journey survives in a copy of a letter written to sculptor Thomas Banks (1735 - 1805), see Whitley 1821 - 37.





Engraved image below from the British Museum.




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Two Plaster Busts of Thomas Bodley, after the original stone bust in the Bodleian.

some notes and illustrations.


1. The Plaster Bust of Thomas Bodley 1535 - 1613) in the Bodleian Library. Oxford.


The Polychrome Plaster Bust probably mid 18th century - a replica of the stone bust, of Sir Thomas Bodley in the Bodleian Library which was put up in the niche in the library in 1605. 

In 1636 Archbishop Laud gave, along with his Statutes, the bronze bust of King Charles (No. 108) which faces the stone head of Bodley across the entrance to Duke Humphrey's Library



Mrs Poole says this plaster bust was once painted green (possibly to represent bronze).

This needs to be checked - she might have been confusing this bust with other duplicate (bronzed) plaster bust at Merton College illustrated below.

This bust was recently in store at the Weston Library, Oxford.

It is my opinion that the Bodleian stone bust could not have been carved by Nicholas Stone.

Stone would have been aged about 19. A comparison with the bust on the monument which to my eye is fairly wooden would suggest a much more competent and perhaps mature sculptor for the Bodleian stone bust.


The Bodleian Library was opened in 1602, and three years later the first portrait to be housed within its walls was presented by Thomas, Earl of Dorset, Chancellor of the University, and was put up where it now stands. 

Mrs Reginal Lane Poole in her Catalogue of Portraits in the Possession of  the University Colleges City and County of Oxford pub 1912 in 3 vols - says -

"This bust of the Founder which was ' carved to the life by an excellent hand in London '  and intended for the ' perpetual memory of him and his bounty to the public has scarcely received the attention it deserves. 

It is a good and faithful piece of work, and the only portrait of Sir Thomas Bodley we possess which was given in his lifetime. It was not till 1634, twenty years after his death, that the University acquired the large canvas which displays the best known figure of him".

































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2. The Plaster Bust of  Thomas Bodley at Merton College. Oxford.

Sizes - Height 68 x Width  60 x Depth 24 cms.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/thomas-bodley-15451613-244922

This is another cast from the original stone bust.








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The Stone Bust of Thomas Bodley in the Bodleian Library.

Bodleian Library Interior from the East.

 From David Loggan's Oxonia Illustrata of 1675.

 Note the bust of Charles I on the North side side of the arch.

 ©Trustees of the British Museum.



























It is not clear whether the Polychromy is the original finish


This remarkable bust is here suggested as either by Isaac James (d. 1625) or by Hendryk de Kayser.

It is comparable with the bust of an unknown man (probably Joachim Wtewael 1566-1638.)

Modelled in polychromed terracotta in the Rijksmuseum, the bust was inscribed  in the damp clay ANO1606.


https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/Bust+of+a+Man+Hendrik+de+Keyser+(1565%E2%80%931621)--f367d587033c6fa58528d07ed17ac323




 

The bust was given to the University 'for the perpetual memory' of the founder and 'for his bounty to the public' by the Chancellor the Earl of Dorset who sent it 'carved to the life by an excellent hand at London' in 1605'.

It is my opinion that this bust could not have been carved by Nicholas Stone.

Nicholas Stone would have been aged about 19 in 1605. A comparison with the bust on the monument to Bodley carved by the Stone workshop, put up in the Chapel at Christ Church College, which to my eye is fairly wooden, would suggest a more competent and perhaps more mature sculptor than Stone.

It shows the influence of the Amsterdam sculptor and architect Hendryk de Keyser (1565 - 1621).

Hendryk de Keyser was in England in 1606 - Nicholas Stone a pupil of Isaac James went to Amsterdam with de Keyser and married his daughter and returned to England in 1613.

 

see my post - http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/hendrick-de-keyser-and-his.html

 

 Below is a short list culled from The Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors 1560 - 1660. by Adam White, Walpole Society Journal, 1999.

 

I have used this list extensively to flesh out the histories of these sculptors on this blog.

 

This list is not exhaustive but the number of candidates for the possible sculptor of the Thomas Bodley Bust who were working in London at the beginning of the 17th century is surprisingly small. I have not included Nicholas Stone


Presented here in alphabetical order -

Bartholomew Atye (fl 1600 - 1618).

The Colt Family Workshop:

John Colt fl. 1685 - d.1637.

Maximillian Colt (Coult). fl. 1602 - 27/8.

The Cure family workshop:

Cornelius Cure (d. 1608/9).

William Cure (d.1632).

 Epiphanius Evesham (c. 1570 - c 1620's) not relevant to the Bodley Bust research because he worked in Paris from 1600 - 1615.

 Isaac James ( fl. 1600 - 1624/5). My current favourite for the possible sculptor of the Bodley Bust along with Hendryk de Keyser

 The Johnson Family Workshop:

Garret Johnson The Elder fl.1591 - 1611.

Garrat Johnson the Younger

Nicholas Johnson f. 1594 - 1624. (son of Garret Johnson The Elder).

 Gillis (Jellis or Giles) fl. 1576 - 1614.



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The Monument to Thomas Bodley.

Merton College Chapel. Oxford

Erected May 1615.

 

see - The Notebook and Account Book of Nicholas Stone -Walter Lewis Spiers

Walpole Society Journal, VII - 1918/19

 see also - Jean Wilson, in Church Monuments VIII, 1993. p. 57 - 62.



The naked figure below represents Grammar holding the Golden Key to higher learning.

The four seated figures surrounding the bust represent Music, Arithmetic, Grammar and Rhetoric.

The figure on the left holds an open book promising the Bodley's name will not be erased from the book of  Life - NON DELEBO NOMEN EIUS DE LIBRO VITAE.

For further photographs see -

This post forms part of an ongoing project suggested by Dana Josephson to update the researches of Mrs Rachel Poole and most recently by Kenneth Garlick into the portrait sculpture of the 17th and 18th Centuries at the Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Camera and Christchurch College. 

This includes a survey of other portrait sculpture in Oxford including the 24 plaster busts by John Cheere and the Roubiliac bust of Archbishop Chichele in the Codrington Library at All Souls College, and the sculpture at St John's College.






for more photographs taken by the author see -




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An original preparatory drawing for the Monument to Sir Thomas Bodley.

 by Nicholas Stone.

 MS. Ashmole 1137 fol.143r, Bodleian Library.

The Photograph of the drawing was very kindly given to me by Dana Josephson who had inspired me to write about the portrait sculpture at Oxford University.


 Sir Thomas Bodley died 28 January 1613.

 He was Buried in Merton College Chapel with much ceremony 29 March 1613.






Sunday, 11 May 2025

The Lead Bust of Samuel Clarke (1675 - 1729) at Beningborough Hall.


Post under construction.


 Supposedly by Jamé Verhych (sometimes Jamé Derhijck).

I would suggest not by Verhych.

Here suggested as possibly modelled by Roubiliac and cast by John Cheere.

A very fine Bronzed Lead Bust.
Height 60 cms.
Beningborough Hall. Yorkshire.

National Portrait Gallery.

Purchased in 1971.

For the portraits of Clarke at the NPG see


There is no mention of Verhych or variations of this spelling in the Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors.... Roscoe et al pub. Yale 2009.

There is however a reference in the Biographical Dictionary to Anthony Verhuke (fl 1670 - 1719) who was employed at Windsor by Charles II. who was given a permit from the Privey Council on 21 May 1679 "to remain here without molestation together with John Oastes (John (van) Nost I) and Arnold Luellan (Arnold Quellin)" and "to go freely about the cities of London and Westminster until further orders" 

see The National Archives - Domestic Entry Book, Car II, Vol LI, SP44/51 fols 77 - 79. He was, with Laurens Vandermeulen described as servants to Grinling Gibbons the Carver.
 
I suspect that the attribution to Verhych came originally from an enterprising Antique dealer.


A brief internet search came up with a loose reference to the bust and Sidney J Block in the International Antiques Yearbook pub. Studio Vista in 1970. This needs to be verified!

Sidney Jerome Block (1915 - 83) was an America antique dealer trading at 12 Hinde Street,  London W1 from 1956 - 70.



See my post







The form of the socle (at this stage of the researches it is not immediately clear what the socle is made of  - it appears to be of lead but is possibly a fossil marble).

I have recently spent some time researching 18th Century lead busts and I would suggest that this bust is related to other busts with similar socles.

The bronze finish also points to the lead busts cast in the mid 18th Century in the Hyde Park Corner  workshop of John Cheere.  

The bronzing appears on many works in plaster by John Cheere. The Kirkleatham (now with York Museums group of plaster figures and busts some inscribed and dated 1749 are prime examples

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Dr Samuel Clarke (1675 - 1729).

 Portrait by Charles Jervas (1675 - 1739).

c. 1729/30.

Royal Collection.

 NB Portrait bust of Isaac Newton right hand background.




Dr Samuel Clarke is mostly known today from a footnote to Pope’s line ‘Nor in a hermitage set Dr. Clark’ (‘Epistle to Lord Burlington’, l 731), which criticised Queen Caroline for including Clarke in the company of Newton and others in her Hermitage at Richmond. 

Clarke was a distinguished theologian, scholar, philosopher and natural scientist, who studied with Newton and corresponded with Leibniz. In his theological works he attempted to defend Anglican doctrine in a rationalist manner, making him an influential enlightenment thinker. 

Queen Anne made Clarke one of her chaplains in Ordinary and in 1709 he was made rector of St James’s Piccadilly. 

Queen Caroline’s admiration for him is demonstrated by the bust in the Hermitage and by this painting, with its eulogistic inscription written by Benjamin Hoadley (1676-1761), (see below) which was hung at Kensington Palace. Clarke is shown with a bust of Newton, below which are arranged four books: Bacon’s ‘Essays’, Boyle’s ‘Lectures’, Newton’s ‘Principia’ and ‘Optica’ (presumably Clarke’s Latin translation of his ‘Opticks’).


Text and image above courtesy:

 Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2014

 for an excellent brief biography of Clarke and his philosophies and his relationship with Isaac Newton see:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Clarke

 Clarke was offered the post of Master of the Mint after the death of Newton in 1727 but refused it.

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A Portrait of Samuel Clarke.

By or after Thomas Gibson (c 1680 - 1751).

Thomas Gibson,  (c.1680–1751), portrait painter, is of obscure origins. He was appointed a founder director of Godfrey Kneller's academy in London in 1711. According to the painter Thomas Highmore, Sir James Thornhill sometimes applied to Gibson to sketch for him in his large pictures figures in action. Vertue, who was on terms of great friendship with Gibson and who was one of his pupils at Godfrey Kneller's academy, recorded that other artists were offended with Gibson because he refused to raise his prices. He also stated that due to serious illness he was obliged to sell his pictures privately among his friends about 1729–30 and to retire from practice to Oxford. He subsequently returned to London about 1732 and is said to have resumed his practice. He died in London on 28 April 1751, aged about seventy-one. At the Society of Antiquaries there is a portrait of Vertue by Gibson, painted in 1723 (engraved by Vertue himself); at the Royal Society a portrait of John Flamsteed the astronomer. A number of his portraits are in Oxford, including portraits of Flamsteed and John Locke (Bodl. Oxf.) and a portrait of Archbishop Wake (Christ Church picture gallery). His last recorded works are a portrait of Augusta, princess of Wales, and a group portrait of her children, painted in 1742. Many of his portraits were engraved by J. Faber, J. Simon, G. White, G. Vertue, and others, including those of Sir Robert Walpole, Admiral Sir Charles Wager, Dr Henry Sacheverell (1710; Magdalen College, Oxford), Robert, Lord Molesworth, and the Revd Samuel Clarke. Further examples of Gibson's work are in the collections of the Society of Antiquaries, the National Maritime Museum, Lambeth Palace, the Royal Society, and Orleans House Gallery, London; and the Bodleian Library, Christ Church, and Magdalen College, Oxford.





this website has an excellent overview of the career of  Dr Clarke.






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The first and only inscribed marble bust by John Cheere is of James Lawes which is in Kingston, Jamaica. Cheere along with his brother Henry took over the yards of the van Nosts in 1738.


Of his five known apprentices and assistants, two of these men later started independent businesses. James Hoskins, who was taken apprentice by Cheere in 1747, became ‘moulder and caster in plaster’ at the newly founded Royal Academy in 1769 and in 1774 formed a partnership with another former apprentice, Benjamin Grant. They supplied plaster casts to the firm of Wedgwood and Bentley. 

The others, of whom nothing is known, were John Fulford, Richard Breach and John Candy, all listed as Cheere’s apprentices in the London Evening Post on 10-12 December 1751 when they testified to the efficacy of a cure for William Collins’s ulcerous leg.


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The Kirkleatham Plaster Bust of Clarke by John Cheere.

based on the lead bust illustrated above.

H 57 x W 41 x D 21 cm

One of a group of 19 Busts and Figures supplied to William Turner in 1749.York Museums.


https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/samuel-clarke-16751729-272400/search/actor:cheere-john-17091787/page/5





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Another related mid 18th Century lead bust here suggested as Bolingbroke modelled by Roubiliac and cast by John Cheere.

Note the similarity with the socle on the bust of Dr Clarke

This excellent bust has had its original surface treatment removed - possibly bronzed or painted white to resemble marble.


see my previous post -

















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The Lead Bust of Dr William Henry Salmon and his wife Mary.

Both of these very fine busts are mounted on stone socles of the same form as the lead bust of Dr Clarke.

I am not entirely convinced of this identification.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

Purchased together with A.19-1921 from the Rev. J.D.C. Wickham, 8 Landsdown Place East, Bath in 1921 for £170. He inherited them from the Salmon family of Holcombe. Somerset.

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Rev. James Douglas Clephane Wickham BA.  JP.(1840 - 1931), some notes -

Rev. James Douglas Clephane Wickham wrote With Spade and Terrier:  historical side-lights from the discovery of stone-age, Celtic, and Roman remains : also from the etymology of local place and family names, from customs and folk-lore, garnered from the tithe-maps and registers of Holcombe-by-Mendip and surrounding district : being personal reminiscences Pub, 1912.

JDC Wickham - Biographical Notes.

The Wyckhams had been at Horsington since the 16th Century

JDCW was the Elder son of the Revd Hill Dawe Wickham M.A. of Horsington, Somerset

Wickham, James Douglas Clephane, 1son. Hill Dawe, of Frome,

Somerset, arm. EXETER COLL. Oxford  matric. 14 Jun, 1859, aged 19; B.A.

1864, rector of Cucklington, Somerset, 1867-71, Harrow-on-the-Hill,

1871-3, and (patron and) rector of Horsington 1875.


The birth of James Douglas Clephane Wickham was registered 1840/Q3 Frome.

The birth of Alice Matilda Neal was registered 1848/Q3 Marylebone.

The marriage of James Douglas C Wickham to Alice Matilda Neal was registered 1877/Q2 Marylebone. Daughter of William and Elizabeth Neal of Kingsdon

In the 1901 census at 11 Edward Street, Bath: Mary E Wickham, aged56, unmarried, living on own means, born at Frome (Som), James D C Wickham, aged 60, married, brother, clergyman Church of England retired, born at Frome, Alice M Wickham, aged 52, married, sister in law, born in London, and three servants.

The death of Alice M Wickham, aged 75, was registered 1924/Q1 Bath. From the burial register: Alice Matilda Wickham, aged 75, of 8 Lansdown Place East, was buried on 14 Mar 1924. 

The death of James Douglas Clephane Wickham, aged 90, was registered 1931/Q2 Bath. From the burial register: James Douglas buried on 13 Apr 1931.

Buried Lansdown Cemetery Bath



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James Eyre Salmon was living at Holcombe House in 1866.

Rev. JDC Wickham was Lord of the Manor of Holcombe and in 1883 was living at Horsington Rectory, Wincanton, Somerset.

In 1904 the Rev Wickham had moved and was living at Holcombe Manor, Somerset. 

The original manor was demolished in the 1874 - Holcombe Manor is a late Georgian House built for Greens of Holcombe Brewery..

see - Notes & Queries for Somerset and Dorset, Volume 20

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William Henry Salmon MD. (presumably d. 1763).

Salmon is a fairly common Somerset surname it is difficult to disentangle the Salmon family relationships

For the Holcombe Salmons see -

 https://archive.org/details/recordsbyspadete00wick/mode/2up?q=Salmon

The information below from - 

The privately printed Salmon Chronicles by H J D Salmon pub 1947 - available online -

https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G006114.pdf

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The Salmons and Coal Mining.

From Somersetshire Records.

History of Somerset VHC.

Vol ii 380 "Amongst the most vigorous mining adventurers in Stratton-on-Fosse and vicinity during the early Seventeenth century were various members of the Long and Salmon families especially Willm Long and John Salmon the elder better known locally as Gentleman Salmon, a son of Henry Salmon."

Vol ii 382 ''About the year 1673 Mr. Trowbridge granted a licence to William Salmon, Samuel Salmon and Tho mas Perkins to work coal-mines in his lands at Holcombe."


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William Henry Salmon and Holcombe.

The following from - With Spade and Terrier: by JDC Wickham pub 1912.

In 1664 it is recorded in a deed by which John Salmon is put into possession of Holcombe Farm on payment of a fine of £377 that all the land in question situated in Holcombe and Kilmersdon was heretofore in the occupation of one Arthur Hippsley deceased.


 Hugh Fortesque, of Filleigh, Devon, who sat in Parliament all through the reign of William III.

 He died in 1719, and was succeeded by his son, Hugh, made first, Baron Clinton, then Baron Fortesque, then Earl Clinton by George II.

 This nobleman changed the name of the family seat from Filleigh to Castle Hill. He was born 1695, and died 1751.

 He obtained the ancient Barony of Clinton by its being called out of abeyance by a writ of summons to him as 14th Baron in right of his mother, Bridget Boscawen, only child of Lady Margery Clinton, youngest daughter of Theophilus, twelfth Baron Clinton and fourth Earl of Lincoln. He was a Lord of the Bedchamber to George I, a K.C.B., and Lord Lieut, of Devon.

 

He sold his property at Croscombe and Holcombe, having no children to succeed to the title. The Holcombe property, which was all concentrated in his hands, was bought in 1734, by W. H. Salmon, originally of Stratton and Chilcompton.






The Salmon family had been at Holcombe from 1630 to 1881. Members of the family had lived at Stratton (0n the Fosse) in still earlier days. Holcombe old church has several tablets to the memory of Salmons of Holcombe. 

Their pedigree is as follows : — John Salmon, born 1630, died 1711. (Gentleman) John Salmon, of Oriel College, Oxford, his son, who died 1714, leaving a son, William Henry Salmon, called Dr. Salmon. He married Mary Tooker, of Norton Hall, and bought the Manor of Holcombe in 1734. 

He had three children: John, Captain of Somerset Militia, died 1790 ; James, of Writhlington, buried 1772, who married Bridget Eyre, of New Sarum; Mary, married Philip Dart, Rector of Stratton. James had a son, James Eyre Salmon, who married a daughter of Frances Whalley, and had a daughter, Bridget Bingley Salmon. This James Eyre Salmon died in 1881, and his daughter fourteen years later. 

He left the Manor to the writer and his heirs (JDC Wickham).

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The Monuments in Holcombe Old Church, Somerset.

Per Rev. D Ibbotson of Stratton (on the Fosse).

"Sacred to the memory of John Salmon gent born 1630, and died at Writhlington House in this county Feb 1711 in the 82nd year of his age and was buried in the church of that parish adjoining the remains of various members of his family. 

His ancestors having borne the patronimic of Dei Sancto Alemonds until it became anglicized . . . "

Also Revd John Salmon eldest son of John Salmon and Bridget his wife Lord of the Manor of Writhlington. Died at Oxford August 1714.

Also James Salmon, Lord of the Manor of Writhlington, 3rd youngest son of the said John Salmon. Died October 1772.

William Henry Salmon MD, Lord of this Manor died at Holcombe House Sepr 1756 second son of John Salmon Lord of the Manor of Writhlington.


Also Mary wife of Rev Philip Dart Rector of Stratton on Fosse and daughter of William Henry Salmon. Died February 1774.

Also John Salmon Captain in the British Army and Lord of the Manor of Writhlington and Holcombe, eldest son of William Henry Salmon and Mary his wife. Died February 1790.











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The Bust of Mrs Mary Salmon - the pair to the above bust.

Lead.

Victoria and Albert Museum.
























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An Anonymous Life size Lead Bust  - Perhaps of  Carlo Broschi - Called Farinelli.

Possibly modelled by Roubiliac and cast by John Cheere.

On a Squat Stone Socle of the same type as the lead bust of Dr Clarke.

Life Size.

London Art Market 2014.

Current whereabouts unknown.












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The Lead Bust of  Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765).
another is at Belton House, Lincs.

Again the marble socle is very similar to that on the Clarke bust.

Aged 25.

Victor at the Battle of Culloden of 16 April 1746 which ended of the Jacobite Rebellion.

Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-65) was the youngest son of George II (1783-1760). He is best remembered for suppressing The Jacobite Rebellion, an attempt by the Catholic Stuarts of Scotland to regain the British throne. The Rebellion culminated in the Battle of Culloden, 1746, with a British victory against the Highlanders.

 Prince William, otherwise known as ‘Butcher Cumberland’ by his Tory opponents or ‘Sweet William’ by his Whig supporters.


I don't believe he was a very nice person.

Dated on the Marble Socle 1746.




Inscribed on the socle at the front: REPUBLICA SERVATA/MDCCXLVI

 (In the service of the Republic/ 1746).


Notes below from the V and A files  the italics are minePreviously at Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland from an unrecorded date until its purchase by Cooper & Adams, 41 James Street, London, from the Castle sale in 1947. 

Noted in departmental records to have been erroneously catalogued as George Ill, the bust may possibly be identified as that included in the classical and other sculptures auctioned on the third day's sale held on 30 April 1947: lot 2379 was a 'bronzed compo bust George Ill, 26 in. high', sold together with a marble model of a hand; the height of 26 inches matches the height of the present piece with it's socle. 

Purchased by the  V and A Museum from Cooper & Adams in 1947 for E50.


 Comparisons with contemporary commemorative medals show Cumberland with similar features

(see Medallic Illustrations, pls. CLXVII and CLXVIII).

In 1971 Margaret Whinney catalogued this bust as anonymous, 'Though it has some affinity to works by John Cheere, it would be rash to suggest that he was the sculptor' (Whinney 1971, p. 94). 

The recent attribution came about in 1976 with correspondence between Anthony Radcliffe and General R.H. Whitworth concerning an identical bust at Belton House, Lincolnshire. 

General Whitworth wrote, 'The bust is exactly similar to a lead one belonging to Lord Brownlow at Belton and his is certainly by Sir Henry Cheere. 

In the Cust family records is written "A leaden bust of William, Duke Of Cumberland, the victor at Culloden executed by C is still at Belton House. 

Sir John cust wrote from Marlborough street to Lord Tyrconell on 7th November 1747 and says he had paid Cheere €9 9 0, due by his uncle, for the Duke's bust. 

This seems conclusive that it was executed by Cheere soon after Culloden.

I say Executed but not sculpted.

Mr Skipman at Belton House gave me this information from the  family records' (letter 2 February 1976). 

Anthony Radcliffe noted that although the particular Cheere responsible for the bust is not specified, it is likely to have been produced by Henry Cheere, 'since John is not known as a portrait sculptor, and it was Henry who was to execute in 1770 the lead equestrian statue of the Duke for Cavendish Square.

Furthermore, Henry Cheere executed in 1754 the monument to Viscount Tyrconnell in Belton Church. It is not impossible, however, that the bust was cast in the yard of John Cheere' (departmental records).

However more recently Moira Fulton has pointed out that John Cheere did on occasion execute portrait busts, for example a gilt lead bust of the Duke of Argyll (should be Atholl) in 1743, on display at Blair Castle; Cheere charged 7 guineas for it, plus 2 guineas for gold bronzing it (Blair Castle Charter Room, Bundle' 55).

The similarity in price suggests that possibly John Cheere modelled the present piece (personal communication from Moira Fulton, February 2002).

John Cheere also probably collaborated with his brother Henry to make the lead equestrian statue of the Duke of Cumberland in Cavendish Square (Webb 1958, p. 278). (We are grateful to Moira Fulton for her comments on this).

A reduced lead version of the bust was with the dealer Alfred Spero in October 1952 (noted by Terence Hodgkinson [q.v.] in departmental records). A small lead bust of the same subject attributed to

Cheere (h. 21 cm), was exhibited at Trinity Fine Arts 31 May -20 June 1990 no 19 and may be identical with the bust noted with Spero by Hodgkinson in 1952.












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The Belton House Lead Bust of the Duke of Cumberland.

Height 65 cms.

Unfortunately the socle and inscription are not clearly visible.

National Trust.

The bust was made for Viscount Tyrconnel (1690-1754) and delivered to Belton in 1747 where it was displayed in the Marble Hall, according to the 1754 Tyrconnel Inventory. A letter from Cust to Tyrconnel dated 7 November 1747 reveals that Cheere demanded an extra six shillings for the bust:

 

‘I was at Cheer’s the Statuary this morning who tells me that he sent the Duke’s Bust to your Lordship by this weeks carrier. I have therefore paid him the nine guineas but he made an extraordinary demand of six shillings for the packing case which I woud fain have had him remit but cou’d not prevail’. (Records of the Cust Family, p.207)























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An Anonymous Mid 18th Century Lead Bust.

Probably not Addison.

Attributed by Sotheby's to Henry Cheere.

 My opinion is that this is not a bust of Addison nor was it modelled by Henry Cheere (see photographs of John Cheere's bust of Addison below).

 Sotheby's Lot 213 - 8 June 2021.

 The Sothebys catalogue entry -

 Joseph Addison.

Sir Henry Cheere c.1740

Lead bust; on a later ebonised wood square socle.

 22 7/8 in. (58.1 cm.) high; 27 ¾ in. (70.5 cm.) high, overall.


It would seem to follow that as the Sotheby bust is the only version of this bust so far to appear, that the busts of Addison by John Cheere, which were much reproduced first by Cheere, and then in three different sizes by Harris of the Strand and subsequently in basalt by Wedgwood and again in the early 19th century by Shout of Holborn are the standard three dimensional portrait of  Addison.


For much more on the portraiture of Addison see -







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James Murray. 2nd Duke of Atholl (1690 - 1764).

Gilt lead bust.

1743?

Blair Castle.

Supplied by John Cheere but possibly modelled by Roubiliac. In the red bedroom at Blair in 1966.




..........

Portrait  of The Second Duke of Atholl by Allan Ramsay.

1743.

National Galleries of Scotland.



His elder brother, William Marquis of Tullibardine did not inherit the title due to his association with the Jacobites in the '15 Rising. An act of Parliament made his younger brother, James Murray, the next Duke of Atholl. He succeeded in 1724. His rights were confirmed in 1733 - this gave him the title of Lord Privy Seal of Islay (Argyle). In 1738, through his ancestry, he also inherited Sovereignty of Isle of Man.

During the rising of 45, James fled and joined Cumberland's army which sought to crush the Jacobites. His brother, Marquis Tullibardine sieged Perthshire lands and Blair Castle.

He died in Dunkeld in 1764