English 18th Century Portrait Sculpture: The Busts of Oliver Cromwell, Part 22. The Tangye Bust

The Busts of Oliver Cromwell,

Part 22.

The Tangye Marble Bust redux.

Museum of London.

With Sir Richard Tangye (1833 - 1906) by 1899.

19th-century engineer Sir Richard Tangye was a noted Cromwell enthusiast and collector of Cromwell manuscripts and memorabilia. His collection included many rare manuscripts and printed books, medals, paintings, objects d'art, and a bizarre assemblage of "relics". This includes Cromwell's Bible, button, coffin plate, death mask, and funeral escutcheon.

On Tangye's death, the entire collection was donated to the Museum of London, where it can still be seen.

The bust is currently in deep store.

I am very grateful to Danielle Thom, Curator of Making at the Museum of London for taking the time to visit the store and to obtain these photographs for me.

see my previous post:

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/05/bust-of-cromwell-by-lawrence-anderson.html

For the three similar busts at the Milwaukee Museum, The Russell Cotes Museum and the lady Lever Art Gallery see:

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/03/busts-of-oliver-cromwell-at-lady-lever.html

and:

https://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2019/03/oliver-cromwell-two-marble-busts.html

It is now clear that this bust which is illustrated in the 1899 work below cannot possibly be the Russell Cotes Museum, the lady Lever or Milwaukee Museum bust, but it is obviously related.

All four of these busts are of a similar, rather indifferent quality suggesting that they came from the same workshop

The mystery remains as to where the original inspiration for these busts came from. The treatment of the flesh is similar to that of the Wilton busts, as is flesh on the Hovingham bust.

The Hovingham busts is that most likely to be attributable to Lawrence Anderson Holme but currently the evidence is circumstantial.