Is this a bust of Sir Thomas Parker, The First Earl of Macclesfield (1697 - 1764).
by Michael Rysbrack?
I suspect not.
Some notes and a short look at socle types in the 18th Century.
A Bust of Macclesfield was modelled by J. M. Rysbrack (see - George Vertue, Notebooks, Wal.
Soc., XXII, 1934, p 56, in 1732), a marble version not then known.
A plaster cast,
bare-headed with drapery round shoulders, was sold in the Shirburn Castle Library Sale, conducted by Christie’s, 1 December 2005, lot 71. (images below).
The images below have been lifted from the article in the Georgian Group Journal. Vol XVII 2009 pages 19 - 40. by David Wilson entitled A Very Early Portrait by Michael Rysbrack.
I have attempted but have not been able to contact David Wilson.
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2009_02_WILSON.pdf
The evidence provided here that the use of the turned socle and eared support would suggest a much later cast - it could easily be as late as the 1830's.
See the Pier Angelo Sarti (1793 - 1868) busts at Wimpole Hall and the Athenaeum Club
(illustrated below).
I have recently found myself looking at the various forms of Socles used by some English Sculptors in the 18th Century.
This had evolved from research into a very fine marble portrait bust of a young lady on a turned socle with what can best be described as an eared support with the turned socle below, the actual bust is now believed to be an unrecorded bust of the bluestocking and sculptor Anne Seymour Damer by Joseph Nollekens. (below).
The eared support and turned socles used by Nollekens during his visit to Rome and after his return are very close to that on the so called bust of Macclesfield illustrated here.
This form of socle which appears to have first been used in England after Nollekens return from Rome in 1770 where he had been since 1761 - at least some of his time in Rome was spent restoring antiques and working on portraits for Cavaceppi at his workshops/ studios on the Corso.
The support between the ears of the Nollekens busts was alway slightly convex - this was a signature feature of many of the earlier Nollekens busts which was developed (Piranesi etc) in Rome after he returned from 1770.
Certainly the use of the turned socle was prevalent in France in the 18th century but it would be of interest to take a look at its use in England - this of course can be frought with difficulty given thathe socles were invariably created separately and could be subject to the vagaries of fashion - many of the busts in the Royal Collection had their socles replaced in the 1820/30's. Roubiliac's Ligonier is a case in point.
Malcolm baker has written on the appearance of the backs of portrait busts but to my knowledge no one has approached the subject of the socles used by various sculptors in the 18th century.
The so called Macclesfield Plaster Bust from Shirburn Castle.
Sold Christie's 1 December 2005, lot 71.
The marks on the back suggest that this bust was taken from a terracotta original.
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of tangential interest!
An unidentified marble bust at West Wycombe.
Posted here to illustrate the unusual use of the completely bald or shaven head.
A bust of James Gibbs of 1726 at the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford is similarly bald.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-marble-bust-of-james-gibbs.html
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2001_01-BALDERSTON.pdf
For an useful introduction to West Wycombe see -
https://www.artandthecountryhouse.com/essays/essays-index/the-house-and-the-drawings-collection-at-west-wycombe-park-dashwoods-educated-taste
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The Wimpole Hall Bust of Alexander Pope after Roubiliac supplied by Sarti 1820/30's.
With the typical late 18th/ Early 19th Century Turned Socle.
with the eared support found on ancient Roman busts much used by Bartolemeo Cavaceppi and adapted by Joseph Nollekens.
The bust of Alexander Pope - one of a suite of four busts by Sarti at Wimpole Hall - Dryden, Locke,
and Milton all have the same eared base to the bust on the socle
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-sarti-busts-at-wimpole-hall.html
This website (link below) provides an excellent potted history by John
Kenworthy Brown of the 14 busts supplied by Sarti in or just after 1830 to the
Athenaeum. These busts are truncated the eared support survives but the turned socles have been removed.
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/athenaeum/catalogue.html
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Bust of a Vestal?
Inscribed Shout and sold by Blouin, Paris in 2018.
No further details available.
The style of the socle is instructive.
......................
I have recently found myself looking at the various forms of Socles used by some English Sculptors in the 18th Century.
This has evolved from research into a very fine marble portrait bust of a young lady on a turned socle with what can best be described as an eared support the turned socle below the actual bust now believed to be an unrecorded bust the bluestocking and sculptor Anne Seymour Damer by Joseph Nollekens. (below).
The eared support and turned socle used by are very close to the so called bust of Macclesfield, which appears to have first been used in England after Nollekens return from Rome in 1770 where he had been since 1761 - for at least some of his time in Rome was spent restoring antiques and working on portraits for Cavaceppi at his workshops/ studios on the Corso.
The support between the ears of the Nollekens busts was alway slightly convex - this was a signature feature of many of the earlier Nollekens busts which was developed (Piranesi etc) in Rome after he returned from 1770.
................
Bust suggested as Anne Seymour Damer attributed to Nollekens, 1780's.
In the18th Century Nollekens used a socle unique to him but based on the form used by the Roman sculptor and restorer Bartolomeo Cavaceppi with whom he was working with in Rome during the 1760's which in turn had been adapted from antique precedents. He seems to have abandoned this formof socle by the end of the 18th century
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-very-fine-marble-bust-of-lady-here.html
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-portraits-of-anne-seymour-damer.html
For the use of The Nollekens type socle with the Eared support to the bust see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/some-earlier-nollekens-busts.html
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The Bartolomeo Cavaceppi Type Socle.
Catharina Maria Møsting (1714-1770). Gräfin /Countess Schulin.
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1719 - 99).
Life Size Marble Bust.
1768.
Schloss Frederiksborg, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Image courtesy Johnny Tomasso.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-remarkable-bust-by-cavaceppi-in.html
for more on the socles of Cavaceppi's busts see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/cavaceppi-and-eared-socle.html
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There are numerous examples of ancient bust which were restored in Cavaceppi's very large atelier on the Corso in Rome.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/cavaceppi-and-eared-socle.html
Link to all three Volumes bound together of Cavaceppi's
Raccolta pub. 1768 - 1772.
see vol III.
https://archive.org/details/gri_33125009338969/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater
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The Roubiliac Later Type Socle.
Some time after the Nollekens Damer bust I revived ongoing researches into a a very fine copy of Anima Dannata proposed as by Joseph Wilton by Offered by Christie's 7 December 2023.
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6458288
I now consider this bust to be have been sculpted by Louis Francois Roubiliac, given the evidence of the Roubiliac type socle. This socle is (almost) unique to the busts of Roubiliac. There is a marble bust of Lord Chesterfield of 1757 by Joseph Wilton in the British Museum which has a similar socle with a bronze plaque on the front.
It is quite possible that the carving of the socles were either made in the workshop by an assistant or carved by sub contractors.
For a close look at the Roubiliac Type Socle see -
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/03/louis-francois-roubiliac-joseph-wilton.html
In July 1752, Roubiliac travelled with the portrait painter Thomas Hudsons to Rome, where he
is said perhaps to have exclaimed that the sculpture of Bernini made his own look
‘meagre and starved, as if made of nothing but tobacco pipes’.
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The Putative Plaster Bust of Sir Thomas Parker .
The First Earl of Macclesfield (1697 - 1764).
If this is the bust mentioned by George Vertue in 1724 (and I suspect that it isn't) Macclesfield would have been aged 27.
I suggest that this is a much later cast (perhaps 1770's - 1780's - but it could be as late as 1830's) of an as yet unidentified bust perhaps by Nollekens.
In the post below I look at the Nollekens type socle used frequently but not exclusively by him until the 1790's.
The Nollekens socles typically had eared supports with a slightly convex panel.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2024/11/some-earlier-nollekens-busts.html
