An impressive William IV Coadestone corner pilaster capital
the large fired stoneware capital, in the neo-classical taste, cast in deep relief with pierced volutes, flowerheads and scrolled ornament to its two principle sides
£11,350
In stock
Eleanor Coade’s stoneware manufactory had been going for thirty years by 1799 when she built a purpose-built gallery on the Lambeth side of Westminster Bridge to display her wares, not far from her workshops and kilns (where the Royal Festival Hall stands today). By then she was established as the best for sculptural works and architectural ornament made in “Lithodipyra” her perfect stoneware recipe. The best architects of the day were by then well versed in her products, that were not only often better realised than in carved stone, but were cheaper, could be exactly reproduced and, as the past two and half centuries have testified, more hardwearing. That year she also went into partnership with her cousin John Sealy.
The partnership with Sealy which coincided with the death of John Bacon, Coade’s most revered sculptor who had been with her from the beginning, was a great success. The firm was known as “Coade & Sealy” thereafter, they stamped their wares accordingly, until 1813 when Sealy died. Then the firm reverted to “Coade” but Eleanor was 80years old by this point so she brought in the young William Croggen, a distant relation. When Eleanor Coade died in 1821, Croggen bought the business (he had hoped to inherit it).
For a while the business stamped their fired products with “Croggen Late Coade” but in time they used just “Croggen” or as on this capital “Croggen Lambeth 1832”. William Croggen died in 1835 – the ownership and running of the firm passed to his son Thomas John Croggen who kept it going for another five or six years before selling out.
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