Three busts of Francis Dashwood (1708 - 81) at West Wycombe.

 

Some Notes - Post in Preparation.

There is a missing bust of Dashwood by Thomas Scheemakers 1740 - 1808)  (son of Peter Scheemakers) noted in the Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors .... Ref Gunnis 1968 p 344.

The Busts of Sir Francis Dashwood by Thomas Scheemakers. 

Le Despencer employed Scheemakers at both Mereworth and West Wycombe in 1779 - 80 and the sculptor’s bust of his patron is said to have been exhibited in 1779 (presumably Free Society of Artists, London, 1779, no.147, ‘a nobleman’; cf. National Trust Guide, West Wycombe, 2001, p 12). 

A plaster cast or casts of a bust of le Despencer appeared in the Scheemakers sale, Christie’s, 21 May 1805 (R. Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculpture, 1968 ed., p 344).

For  a Biography Thomas Scheemakers see - 

https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=2371

Both the Gunnis Henry Moore and the Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors ... Yale 2009 state that Thomas Scheemakers was the son of Peter Scheemakers.

But in the Wikipedia entry the author makes the very forceful argument that he was the son of Henry Scheemakers (d.1748 in Paris  and brother of Peter) and that he was was born in Paris in 1740.

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

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Scheemakers' account for mason's work done for Lord Le Despencer [Francis Dashwood] in constructing a stone portico at Mereworth.

https://search.worldcat.org/title/944333949

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This is another post prompted by the investigation into the use of  Roubiliac's "late type" socle on a bust by what has been until now anonymous sculptor - as far as I can tell the type of socle appears to have only been used in the 1750's almost uniquely by Roubiliac and is probably based on the precedent of the socle used by the Carrara sculptor Giovanni Antonio Cybei (1706 - 84).

The Scheemakers bust of Francis Dashwood is the exception to the rule.

 The Cybei socle is more elongated but can be seen clearly on the two busts of the Marble Merchants  the Chapman Bird brothers of Millbank, Westminster, currently on loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

see my previous post on the Chapman Bird brothers busts.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/07/edward-chapman-bird-1715-92-marble.html

Once again a big thank you to Dino Tomasso of Tomasso Brothers for initiating this study, prompted by researches into the origin of a very fine marble bust of  Laocoon ,which led to researches into the specific type of socle seen on the first two busts illustrated here and the identification of  the sculptor of  several previously unattributed mid 18th century busts

https://www.tomasso.art/

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

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The Three Busts of Sir Francis Dashwood at West Wycombe Park.

This has been a very unusual opportunity to examine three contemporary 18th century plaster busts of the same sitter. 

The portrait of Sir Francis Dashwood, aged 68 by Nathaniel Dance at the NPG.

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp02670/francis-dashwood-11th-baron-le-despencer

The resemblance of this portrait to the three West Wycombe Busts is obvious.

It is worth mentioning that there also three busts of John Fayne, the Earl of Westmorland by Adye at West Wycombe (the marble is in the V and A).

Two other members of Sir Francis Dashwood's so called Hell Fire Club were sculpted by Louis Francois Roubiliac. see my posts - John Wilkes and Paul Whitehead.

For the bust of Wilkes see -

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/02/bust-of-john-wilkes-by-roubiliac.html

For the bust of Paul Whitehead see my next post-

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-plaster-bust-of-poet-paul-whitehead.html

Within the South Portico in front of the Hall is a series of plaster busts most of which appear to have suffered from some weathering and have been painted, very badly (the paint has been applied directly on to the uncleaned surface perhaps with at least twice to resemble a sort of bronze, but this paint is thick and flaky and it is impossible to tell the quality of what remains of the original surface underneath.

All three busts of Sir Francis Dashwood are plaster casts although the bust in the Entrance Hall has  been painted to resemble terracotta.

This bust has a substantial wooden peg or dowel visible from beneath the back suggesting that it might have been damaged in the past and the head reattached and the surface restored.

The bust of Francis Dashwood in the South Portico has been painted to resemble bronze and is in the worst condition of the three.

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No.1 the Plaster Bust of Francis Dashwood in the Entrance Hall on the South side of the House.

Photographed by the author with permission from the Dashwood estate office - I am very grateful to have been allowed this opportunity once again.

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No 2. The Plaster Bust of Sir Francis Dashwood in the "Stewards Room".

The bust itself is in by by far the best condition and gives a good impression of what the sculptor intended.

The Socle has been broken and glued back together and painted black

Painted in the traditional Stone Colour.

I will need to return to West Wycombe to determine whether this is the original finish and how many coats of paint have been applied.

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The Third Bust of Sir Francis Dashwood, now in the Portico at West Wycombe.

This bust has the swept back base typical of many Roubiliac busts - this suggests to me that it might be one of the first casts taken from the original terracotta. and that the bases of the two busts illustrated above have been adapted so that they sit comfortably on the (Roubiliac Late Type) socles.

It would be useful to know when this bust and the series of classical plaster busts which all have the same finish as this bust (except for the bust of Nero) in the Portico were painted. and what with?

and to know when they entered the collection at West Wycombe.

It would be a very interesting exercise to have this overpainting removed and to be able to investigate what might be left of the original surface.

For a brief, measured and unsensationalised biography of Dashwood see -

https://www.digitens.org/en/notices/francis-dashwood.html

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For a very useful article by Clare Hornsby on the architecture of West Wycombe see -

 https://www.artandthecountryhouse.com/essays/essays-index/the-house-and-the-drawings-collection-at-west-wycombe-park-dashwoods-educated-taste

Clare Hornsby, "The House and the Drawings Collection at West Wycombe Park: Dashwood's Educated Taste", Art and the Country House, https://doi.org/10.17658/ACH/WWE518

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The Roubiliac Later Type Socle. 

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

Mary Okeover.

 Marble Bust - Height 58.4 cms.

 c. 1745.

 I have contacted Okeover but both the busts of the Okeovers (the marble bust of Leake Okover by Joseph Wilton) appear to have disappeared.

   This bust was perhaps carved by the Danish Sculptor Charles Stanley but I now consider that it is much more likely to have come from the workshop of Roubiliac. 

My argument here again rests on the use of a form of socle unique to Roubiliac and the repetition of the drapery.

  https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2021/02/marble-bust-by-charles-stanley-of-mary.html

 

The socle on an unsigned marble bust of the young Marcus Aurelius now at Seaton Delaval and previously at Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk follows the same pattern.

 Another pointer to the Roubiliac authorship is the use of the same drapery on another bust on the Maynard Monument see below. - Another feature that appears only on Roubiliac's busts.

A slightly better photograph of the missing bust of Mary Okeover.

Photograph courtesy Conway Library.

The Life Size Bust of  Elizabeth Lady Maynard on the Maynard Monument at Little Easton, Essex.

Showing the use of the same dress as that on Mary Okeford, but utilising the fairly standard square plan waisted socle of the mid 18th century.

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The Anima Dannata after Bernini.

Roubiliac.

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The Goodwood Bust.

This bust is adapted from an antique bust of the Emperor Trajan.

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Sir Peter Warren.

The Marble Bust.

Roubiliac.

 Huntington Library. San Marino, California.

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A Plaster Bust possibly of Apollo - an Ideal Head.

 Perhaps Aphrodite.

 Life Size.

 at Saltram House. Devon

 Photographed by the Author.

 The loose hair on the shoulders is similar to that of the Cesi Venus or the Venus d'Arles but the topknot is quite different and resembles that on to Capitoline Venus, in  Rome.

 https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2021/02/marble-bust-by-charles-stanley-of-mary.html

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The Monument to John Bamber (c.1754).

 St Margaret of Antioch Church. Barking, Essex.

 Here again Roubiliac utilises the same drapery as that found on the various versions of the busts of Andrew Fountaine and on the bust of Thomas Winnington on the monument at Stanford on Teme Worcs.

c.1754.

A Plaster Bust possibly of Apollo - an Ideal Head.

 Perhaps Aphrodite.

 Life Size.

 at Saltram House, Devon.

 Photographed by the Author.

 The loose hair on the shoulders is similar to that of the Cesi Venus or the Venus d'Arles but the topknot is quite different and resembles that on to Capitoline Venus, in  Rome.

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The Seaton Delaval Plaster Bust of Commodus / the young Marcus Aurelius

Again attributed to Roubiliac given the evidence of the socle.

Captain William Cust, St Walfrum, Grantham, Lincs. The Monument with Bust by Henry Cheere of 1749, and Naval Monuments from the Workshop of Henry Cheere.

 

Some brief notes and images.

This work is ongoing and will be added to as more information turns up.

Henry Cheere seemed to have had something of a monopoly in providing the monuments for Naval Officers.

Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy. Captain Phillip de Sausmaurez, in Westminster Abbey, the Malloy Monument at Shadoxhust, and Matthew Michell at Chitterne, Wilts etc.

The Monument to Captain William Cust (d. 1748).

Grantham, Lincs.

Captain William Cust, of the Boston, who, with the Rear Admiral's permission, was serving as a volunteer on board the Elizabeth.

He was killed in action 8 March 1748 at Port Louis, Hispaniola (now the Island of Haiti and Porto Rico)

The family of Captain William Cust, who according to surviving correspondence were deeply affected by his death, channelled all of their feelings of loss into a punctilious concern that the bust upon his monument (erected Grantham, Lincolnshire 1749) should be a good likeness (Silent Rhetoric - Craske Yale 2007). 

Henry Cheere, was made to repeat his terracotta sketches of William's bust more than three times in order to achieve the chosen effect for the funeral monument erected at Grantham, Lincolnshire -

On July 18th 1747 Peregrine Cust wrote from the family house in Downing Street to his family in Lincolnshire that he had "been to see Cheere, the statuary, who has two busts of my late brother, both unlike, he is making a third from Sir John's picture which does not promise to be like.

Notable for the mention of the maquettes or models for the bust on the monument.

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The Mural Monument to Commodore Matthew Mitchell d. 1752.

All Saints Church, Chitterne, Wiltshire.

c.1753/3.

Photographs taken by the author.

Written by Sir John Knox Laughton Naval Historian; Professor of Modern History, King's College, London.

MICHELL or MITCHELL, MATTHEW (d. 1752), commodore, was promoted to be lieutenant of the Advice with Captain William Martin [q. v.] on 11 April 1729. He afterwards served in the Royal Oak and Ipswich, and in August 1738 was promoted to the command of the Terrible bomb, employed in the North Sea. 

In 1740 he commanded the Swift sloop in the Channel; and in June 1740 was posted to the Pearl frigate, one of the squadron which, on 18 Sept. 1740, sailed for the South Seas under the command of Commodore George (afterwards Lord) Anson [q. v.] 

At Madeira he was moved into the Gloucester of 50 guns, the only ship of force, besides the Centurion, which doubled Cape Horn and reached Juan Fernandez. The sufferings of her crew from scurvy and want of water had been very great, and many men had died. When the few survivors had recovered their health, and with such reinforcements as circumstances permitted, the Gloucester rejoined the commodore off Paita in November 1741, continued with him during the remainder of his cruise on the American coast, and sailed with him for China. The sickness broke out again worse than before, and in a violent storm the ship lost her topmasts and sprang a leak. With jury-topmasts she sailed so badly as to endanger the safety of her consort; she had only sixteen men and eleven boys able, in any way, to do duty, and many of these were sick. She had seven feet of water in the hold, and there were no means of freeing her or of stopping the leak. It was therefore determined to abandon her and set her on fire.

Michell, with the miserable remnant of his ship's company, went on in the Centurion to Macao, whence he took a passage home in a Swedish ship. He arrived in England in June 1743, and in October was appointed to the Worcester, in which he joined the fleet under Sir John Norris in January 1743-4. 

He was afterwards commodore of a small squadron on the coast of Flanders and off Dunkirk, on which service he continued until March 1748, when, on the plea that his private affairs required his presence in England, he was permitted to resign his command. 

In 1747 he was elected member of parliament for Westbury. He died 'in the prime of life,' 29 April 1752. 

He married in 1749 Frances, daughter of Mr. Ashfordby of Norfolk Street, London, with whom, it was announced, he received a fortune of £20,000.

For a brief history of the two Churches, formerly at Chitterne see-

https://chitternenowandthen.uk/all-saints-church/

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Admiral Sir Charles Malloy.

Shaddoxhurst, Kent.

Henry Cheere.

1760.

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Sir Thomas Hardy.

Henry Cheere.

1737.

Westminster Abbey.

It was designed by Sir Henry Cheere in 1737 as a match for that to John Conduitt which is on the other side of the west door.

Note the hairy paw feet on the sarcophagus.

The Monument still very much in the Gibbsian, Rysbrack tradition.

The monument is inscribed -

Near the west door of the Choir lieth interr'd the body of Sr THOMAS HARDY Knt. who died the 16 of August 1732 in the 67 year of his life and according to the directions of his will was buried in the same grave with his wife, who died the 28 of April 1720. He was born in Jersey and descended from Clement Le Hardy who removed from France and settled in that island, and was made a Justice (commonly call'd there a Jurat) in 1381, and was succeeded in the same office by his son and grandson: his great grandson Clement was made a Leiutenant Governor, and had the office of Bailiff (or cheif magistrate) of the island, with the Seigneurie de Meleche confer'd upon him for life by Henry the 7, as a reward for the most important service he had rendered him when Earl of Richmond, after the disappointment he had met with in his first attempt upon England, where being separated from the rest of his fleet by a storm he landed privately in Jersey, intending to stay there till he could obtain leave from the French king to come into his dominions, and was shelter'd at the house of the said Clement, who protected him and convey'd him safely to Normandy at the hazard of his own life, notwithstanding a proclamation from Richard the 3 for apprehending the said Earl, had been publish'd in the island; his descendants have on all occasions distinguish'd themselves to the utmost of their power by thier loyalty & fidelity to the Crown.

Photograph by the author, who was getting tired!

https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-thomas-hardy

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Thomas Bertie, (d. 1749)

St Nicholas Church, Chiselhurst, Kent.

Colour image below from  http://www.speel.me.uk/sculpt/cheerehy.htm

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The Monument to Henry Medley.

York Minster.

Henry Cheere.

1747/8.

Note particularly the use here of the hairy paw feet of the sarcophagus and the battle scene relief.

In Memory of The Honourable Henry Medley, Vice Admiral of the Blue, and Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean, who died at Savona Aug 5th 1747. Inscribed: He was son to Robert Medley Esq, by Dorothy daughter to William Grimston of Grimston Garth Esq. He married Ann, daughter and heiress to Nathaniel Goche merchant in Hull by Dorothy sister to Thomas Grimston Esq Grandson to the Above named William and had issue by her one daughter who died young.

Web photograph from

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Monument_to_Henry_Medley,_York_Minster#/media/File:Memorial_to_the_Hon._Henry_Medley_in_York_Minster.JPG

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The Monument to James Cooper and his Wife attributed to Henry Cheere and the Monument to Sir Thomas Foote and his wife, Both monuments are in All Saints Church, West Ham, Essex.

 

The Monument has been attributed to Henry Cheere.

James Cooper d.1745.

His wife had predeceased him by many years and the head of her statue is probably idealised.

The squarish nose on the head of his wife looks very similar to that of the Hon. Elizabeth Maynard on the monument at Little Easton Essex of 1746 - that monument is by the Dane Stanley who was working in England from 1718 - 1746 when he returned to Denmark. 

The figures on the monument are perhaps by Louis Francois Roubiliac.

This is dangerous territory for me and I might be doing Henry Cheere a huge disservice but I fail to be convinced that Henry Cheere was responsible for sculpting much of the sculpture given to him in particular the portrait busts. That is not to say that he didn't design or superintend their manufacture in his workshops at Old Palace Yard, and Millbank, Westminster.

It was made at about the same time as the Cheere Monument to the 13th Earl of  Kildare at Christchurch, Dublin - This remarkable, innovative and most theatrical monument was completed by 6 September 1746 when reported in London Evening Post - 'on Wednesday last the Right Honourable Earl of Kildare viewed the fine and curious monument made by Mr Cheere an eminent statuary, in Westminster to the memory of his father'. See -

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/10/monument-to-13th-earl-of-kildare.html

The Cooper Monument is inscribed -

James Cooper... who... Desired that under his EFFIGIE after his Name and Age to be Written this (or to this Purpose): I Believed // In one God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, // Also the Resurrection // And whilst I liv d, I Firmly put my trust // In his Divine protection. // But now interrr d, I m cover d or e [over] with Dust, // Reader prepare, for there unto you must.

see - https://catalogue.gloucestershire.gov.uk/records/D2025/82/5

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The Monument to Sir Thomas Foote and his wife.

William Stanton (1639 - 1705).

Also in All Saints Church, West Ham.

Plaster Bust of George III at Paxton House.

 

George III.

Anonymous sculptor

Height 70 x W 49 x D 29 cm.

Paxton House, Berwick upon Tweed.

The turned socle would perhaps suggest a later 18th century cast.

Images here courtesy art uk website

The quality, size and detail of the embroidery on the coat suggest to me the workshop of John Cheere and a near contemporary to the bust by John van Nost III of 1767, (see below) or perhaps slightly later.

Unfortunately there no surviving printed lists of the works of John Cheere (if there ever was one) and so far no copies of his posthumous sale catalogue have appeared

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King George III,by John van Nost the Younger, 1767.

It is housed in the British Museum, London; lent by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

see -

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75361/george-iii-bust-nost-john-van/

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I have written at some length on plaster busts and statuary in the 18th and early 19th centuries see -

The only bust of George III that I can locates is a bust sold by Messrs Shout of Holburn in their list of c. 1805 - the size given is the not very helpful 12 - 18 inches.

see my post -

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