English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: William Pitt Senior Harvard Ceramic Bust

William Pitt Senior

Harvard

Ceramic Bust.

After Joseph Wilton

Harvard University Portrait Collection.

There are several versions of this bust in marble Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; National Portrait Gallery London; Scottish National Gallery (dated 1759?), another version of this bust was at Peper Harrow House, Surrey (this needs to be confirmed). Belvoir Castle (1780 and a version of this bust at the Palace of Westminster, another bust (1781)with the Hon. Anne Pitt - Private Collection Cornwall(noted in Biog. Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain,

I will be posting more on Wilton in due course with particular reference to Oliver Cromwell

Bust stripped of Paint

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Bust of William Pitt, Earl Of Chatham (1708-1778)

Prior to Paint Removal

Joseph Wilton, (1722 - 1803).

Composite ceramic?

Perhaps an early version of Coade Stone.

1768/9.

The early date would make it one of her earliest pieces - The quality of the modelling particularly of the hair falls below the standard of her normal production but this will have been because of the slightly later entrance to the company of the sculptor John Bacon.

see - https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/globalassets/3.-images-and-documents-to-keep/news-and-events-pdfs/belmont/revisiting-the-origins-of-coade-stone_gg_vol-xxiv_2016.pdf

The inclusion of glass in the clay body certainly suggests that it is Coade but the formula for this artificial stone might have been developed earlier by Daniel Pincot who was at their Narrow Wall, Lambeth address before 1767 and prior to Mrs Coade taking over the business

Dimensions.

68 x 42 x 19 cm.

socle: 10.8 × 20.3 × 20.3 cm.

Inscription on the back incised Wm. Pitt / Earl of Chatham.

Provenance:

Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, 1769.

Accession Year

1773

A letter from the Harvard Corporation thanks Franklin “for his very acceptable present of a fine bust of that great assertor of American liberties, Lord Chatham.”

This bust was compared with an identical marble bust of Pitt in the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, Harvard’s bust is an average of 5 percent smaller. Because Coade stone’s reported shrinkage upon firing is also approximately 5 percent.

The Coade business at Narrow Wall by Kings Arms Stairs, on the River Thames at Lambeth, London took over from that of Daniel Pincot in about 1768/9.

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The recipe for Coade stone is still in use by Messrs Coade Ltd. of Wilton Wiltshire.

http://www.coade.co.uk/

I unreservedly recommend them for the quality of manufacture and design of their products

It requires extremely careful control and skill in kiln firing, over a period of days. This skill is even more remarkable when the potential variability of kiln temperatures in the 18th century is considered.
Coade's factory was the only really successful manufacturer of English buff terracotta until the arrival of Blanchard and Blashfield in the 2nd quarter of the 19th Century.

The formula used was:

10% of grog

5-10% of crushed flint

5-10% fine quartz

10% crushed soda lime glass

60-70% ball clay from Dorset and Devon

This mixture was also referred to as "fortified clay" which was then inserted after kneading into a kiln which would fire the material at a temperature of 1,100 °C for over four days.[14]

A number of different variations of the recipe were used, depending on the size and fineness of detail in the work a different size and proportion of grog was used. In many pieces a combination of fine grogged Coade clay was used on the surface for detail, backed up by a more heavily grogged mixture for strength.

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/304510?position=8

For a rather gushing description of the paint removal see -

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/article/a-layered-history

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For two more Coade Stone busts of Queen Elizabeth I see:

http://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-terracotta-bust-of-elizabeth-i-from.html

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/751491

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/a-coade-stone-bust-of-elizabeth-i-6046652-details.aspx

For more on the restoration of this bust see -

The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard's Teaching Cabinet, 1766-1820

By Aleksandr Bierig pub. 2017 - Essay by Anthony Sigel, Claire Grech and Katherine Eremin - a limited version is available on google books.

The back of the Harvard bust showing how the extra material had been removed with a wire loop on a stick during the manufacturing process

Paint partially removed to reveal the first coat of paint

The Harvard Bust during restoration

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William Pitt, Earl of Chatham.

Joseph Wilton.

Marble bust.

Scottish National Gallery.

This bust is signed,inscribed William Pitt on the socle and dated 1759.

From the Roseberg Collection at Dalmeny in the 1890s, and afterwards at Epsom.

National Gallery of Scotland

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William Pitt Earl of Chatham

Joseph Wilton

white marble bust

c. 1766 they say.

height, bust, 25.0, ins.

height, plinth, 5 3/4, ins.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Acquisition:

given; 1937; The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Provenance:

Collection of the Duke of Newcastle at Clumber Park. Sold in the Earl of Lincoln's Sale, Christie's catalogue, 19th October 1937, lot 344.

Notes(s):

Identified by Ellis Waterhouse, 9th August 1951.

There is a bust at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, signed, named (William Pitt) and dated 1759. From the Roseberg Collection at Dalmeny in the 1890s, and afterwards at Epsom.

Joseph Wilton trained as a sculptor with Laurent Delvaux at Nivelles in Flanders and from 1744 with Jean-Baptiste Pigalle in Paris. In 1747 he travelled to Rome and then about 1750 moved to Florence. He returned to England in 1755 with the architect William Chambers, whose friendship helped him to gain patrons. In 1766 he carved the life-size marble of George II in the Senate House, Cambridge. Wilton was one of the Foundation Members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and in 1790 became Keeper of its collections.

William Pitt, a politician known as 'The Great Commoner', was created first Earl of Chatham in 1766, when he formed a short-lived ministry. This classizing portrait is undated, but may have been executed in 1766, the year of the Repeal of the Stamp Act which made Pitt popular in the American Colonies.

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