Michael Lake
Head of Department
Lot 98TP
After William Theed (British, 1804-1891): A third quarter 19th century artificial stone bust of Achilles together with a matching pedestal en-suiteThe bust and pedestal apparently unmarked, circa 1860
29 November 2022, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £10,000
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After William Theed (British, 1804-1891): A third quarter 19th century artificial stone bust of Achilles together with a matching pedestal en-suite
The bust and pedestal apparently unmarked, circa 1860
The classical warrior modelled full face looking slightly to dexter, wearing an elaborate helmet cast with twin griffins and anthemia above a frieze of hunting hounds, the feathered plume supported by a recumbent sphinx, raised on a circular moulded socle, the pedestal of plain columnar form terminating in a moulded base, traces of later grey painted paint, the bust 84cm high, the pedestal 104cm high (2)
The classical warrior modelled full face looking slightly to dexter, wearing an elaborate helmet cast with twin griffins and anthemia above a frieze of hunting hounds, the feathered plume supported by a recumbent sphinx, raised on a circular moulded socle, the pedestal of plain columnar form terminating in a moulded base, traces of later grey painted paint, the bust 84cm high, the pedestal 104cm high (2)
Footnotes
The original marble bust of Achilles by William Theed was part of a commission made for Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria in 1856. The commission, costing £504 (the bill dated 14 March 1857, for 'six colossal busts after the antique supplied by William Theed') comprised 'Juno' of the Ludovico Collection in Rome, 'Aesculapius', 'Alexander of the Capitol', 'Venus of Arles' 'Roma' and 'Achilles', all of which were made to be displayed in the gallery above the grand entrance and marble hall at Buckingham Palace.
Numerous attempts were made to create a new building material from the 17th century onwards with architects searching for a usable, malleable but tough substitute for stone. Coade stone, marketed by its maker Mrs Eleanor Coade as the first ever 'artificial stone', was a mix of clay, terracotta, silicates and glass which was fired for four days at a time in incredibly hot kilns. First marketed at the turn of the 1770s, it was a tough and hard-wearing material which offered new opportunities for fine-detailed decoration. Coade initially went into partnership in 1769 with Daniel Pincot who had a business making artificial stone in south London. However, the pair soon fell out and by 1771 Coade had dismissed Poncot and substituted him with the sculptor John Bacon, whose inspired designs and workmanship helped establish the Coade Artificial Stone Company as the leading firm in the field.
The success of Coade stone was also aided by changing architectural taste as more architects like Robert Adam were looking for a way of applying increasingly delicate ornament to their buildings. Coade offered the most reliable way of achieving this and her stone was soon used by the leading architects of the day, including Adam, Sir William Chambers, Sir John Nash, Sir John Soane, and James Wyatt. It proved suitable not only for all sorts of architectural details, but also for monuments, sculptures, ornaments and garden furniture.
By the 1840s, tastes had changed and the Coade manufactory subsequently closed its door. However numerous other factories continued to produce variants of high fired artificial stone substitutes during the subsequent decades of the 19th century and the offered bust and pedestal after a model by Theed exemplifies the Neo-Grec revival style which became fashionable in the 1860s.
