Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/419

 ii s. i. MAY 21, IMC.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Wall (now Belvedere Road), and. at one time an establishment of much merit.' 2 I have often seen this tablet, but it has now dis- appeared. Is it too much to hope that the London County Council, whose new buildings are being erected on the adjacent land, will replace it by another inscription, chronicling the existence of this important business ?

Pennant in his ' Account of London ' (5th ed., 1813, p. 42) amplifies these state- ments, and adds a new fact. He remarks that

4 ' in a street called Narrow Wall (from one of the antient embankments) is Mrs. Coade's manu- factory of artificial stone. Her repository con- sists of several very large rooms filled with every ornament which can be used in architecture. The statue, the vase, the urn, the rich chimney- piece, and in a few words, everything which could be produced out of natural stone or marble by the most elegant chisel, is here to be obtained at an easy rate. Proof has been made of its durable quality. A beautiful font, the ornament of Debden church in Essex, formed of this material on a most admirable antique model, was given to it by the liberality of Richard Muilman Trench Chiswell, and is the admiration of every person of taste."

Brayley in his ' History of Surrey,' iii. 394-5, states that the premises were occupied for this "manufactory of burnt artificial stone (or terra cotta) " for a period of almost sixty years. It became greatly celebrated,

" much of the statuary, &c., being executed from Bacon'smodels anddesigns. About 1827 [1837 ?]the manufacture was removed by Croggan & Co., who had succeeded to the business, to the New Road, near Tottenham Court."

The statue of Lord Hill on the lofty column at Shrewsbury was designed and executed by Messrs. Coade & Sealy in their artificial stone (Gent. Mag., 1817, pt. ii. 393). The monument in Battersea Church to the memory of John Camden (d. 1780) and of his eldest daughter Elizabeth, wife of James Neild she died in 1791 Was "executed by Messrs. Coade of the Lithodipyra or artificial-stone manufactory at Lambeth. n .t was made " under the inspection of Miss Coade, the owner of the manufactory and the daughter of the person who discovered the composition " (ib., 1792, pt. ii. 588, 805; Manning and Bray's 'Surrey,'- iii. 338-9).

Jewitt mentions Flaxman, Banks, Rossi, and Panzetta as four more leading sculptors employed to model for this manufactory, and specifies several other famous works of art which were executed there. The memorandum of the kilns at Lambeth and the two letters which he prints (dated in 1790 and 1792, the later being written by Miss E. Coade from Lyme) contain some

valuable information, but they are too long for reproduction in ' N. & Q.* They were not reprinted in his subsequent edition of 1883.

Three works relating to the manufactory can be seen at the British Museum.

The first, without a title - page, called ' Etchings of Coade's Artificial Stone Manu- facture, Narrow Wall, Lambeth, near West- minster Bridge, 1 was obtained by purchase on 6 June, 1862. The Catalogue gives the date of 1777-9, and adds "published only for private circulation. . . .under the super- intendence of John Bacon."

The second is "A Descriptive Catalogue of Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory .... with prices affixed, 1784. ls. n The pre- liminary advertisement begins with the statement that the manufactory had been erected for fifteen years.

The third is * Coade's Gallery, or Exhibi- tion in Artificial Stone, Westminster-Bridge- Road,* 1799. A charge of one shilling was made for entrance to this new gallery. The address to the public states that more than thirty years had elapsed since the starting of the manufactory ; acknowledges the assistance of Bacon * ' in the early years of its establishment n ; and boasts that Mr. John De Vaere, * ' many years resident at Rome, is now constantly engaged at the Manufactory in its various branches of statuary." Much information is to be found in its pages upon the chief works of art that had been constructed by the family of Coade.

A brief summary of the history of "Coade's Artificial-Stone-Works " is given in the County Histories). W. P. COURTNEY.
 * History of Surrey, 8 vol. ii. 287 (Victoria

It may be worth noting that in the Abbey Church of Wymondham in Norfolk there is a large Renaissance monument of terra-cotta, on the south side of the altar, over the grave of the last Abbot.

EDWABD BENSLY.

JOHN HENNING, SCULPTOR (11 S. i. 347). Inquiries at the British Museum resulted in no information as to the whereabouts of the models of Henning's reproductions of the Parthenon and Phygaleian friezes.

I have, and have had for the last 55 years, photographs of both these friezes taken from Henning's plaster casts, and although small (IJin. by 5^ in.) they give the details perfectly ; in fact, you might fancy that you were looking at them in the round. They