|
| The South Bank Lion which until 1950 faced the Victoria Embankment on the top of the Old Lion Brewery, bears the name Coade and the date May 24, 1837. | |
|
|
At the time of the Festival of Britain in 1951, the Lion (and another) were painted red and placed outside Waterloo Station. When moved from there to its present site in the early 80's, a glass bottle was found in it containing a "William lV" coin and a trading card bearing the words; "Mr Woodington, Sculptor, on Princess Victoria's birthday, 1834" |
| The story began in
the early years of the 18th century when a young Sussex man, Richard Holt,
began to manufacture a composition from which artificial stone was made.
Holt was pestered by meddling businessmen and architects seeking the
secret of his stone. The secret remained secure, but his work did not gain
popularity. Ill health and near-bankruptcy forced him to sell his business
in the early 1760s. Convalescing in Lyme Regis in Dorset, Richard Holt met
a Mrs. Coade and her Daughter Eleanor, who had taken over a small pottery
business. These two ladies became fascinated by the possibility of
formulating their own modelling materials, and this appears to have become
a reality in 1767 when they produced a material, which, after firing
twice, resembled stone. It was marketed as "Coade Stone".
Deciding that a London address would give more tone to the business, the
Coade ladies bought from Richard Holt his London factory and stock. (This
story of the purchase of Richard Holt's business is contested by Alison
Kelly in her excellent book "Mrs. Coade's Stone" because
the Holt and Coade London addresses, although similar, were in fact
different sites)
From 1770 Mrs. Coade's daughter (although unmarried was given the courtesy title "Mrs.") ran the venture very profitably, successfully promoting "Coade's Lithodipyra Terra-Cotta or Artificial Stone Manufactory". (Lithodipyra - Greek works strung together roughly meaning - "Stone - Twice - Fire") Besides commissions all over the country she had orders for Coade Stone from as far a filed as Rio de Janerio and Tsarskoe Selo (now Pushkin), and the Hermitage in St Petersburg in Russia. |
|
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| In St George's Chapel (Windsor Castle) the choir is divided from the nave by a deep, arcaded screen in the Gothic style. It is built of Coade Stone and was designed by Henry Emlyn in about 1788. On top of the screen is the organ, which was presented to the chapel by George lll in 1790 and installed when the screen was first completed. |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
| All the elegant brick houses in Bedford Square,
built in 1775 - 80, have distinctive entrances. While the square's window surrounds were left plain, the doorways--perhaps the most distinctive and celebrated element of the square--were not. The design of the exceptionally wide fanlights, which embrace not only the front door but also the side lights, represents the high-water mark of this highly attractive Georgian motif. Framed in iron, their delicate, neoclassically-derived tracery was cast in more malleable lead. Sadly, many of the Square's original fanlights have gone, replaced with simpler, Regency forms or (as was the case at number 16 in the 1960s) with starkly functional modern substitutes. |
|
|
|
Above each fanlight is a vermiculated keystone; below are matching voussoirs and quoins. These are not made of stone, nor of plaster, but of Coade stone, that marvellously durable ceramic which still looks as crisp as the day it was cast. Eleanor Coade founded her Lambeth factory in 1769; thus the Bedford Square decorations (which were still appearing in the Coade catalogue of 1799) are amongst the firm's earliest products. |
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
| The death of Nelson produced universal mourning, and Coade Stone statues were put up to him in Montreal and Great Yarmouth, The last and grandest memorial to him is at the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich, where a pediment left unadorned by Wren was filled in 1813 with a vast composition in Coade Stone showing the body of Nelson being given to Britannia while England, Ireland and Scotland mourn the irreparable loss. It is 40 feet long and the main figure is ten feet tall and the quality of the Coade Stone work is, as ever, superb. |
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
| Unveiled by the citizens of Weymouth & Melcombe Regis in 1810 to mark the 50th year of the reign of King George lll. King George lll visited 14 times between 1789 and 1805. The "Grateful Inhabitants" of Weymouth resolved in 1803 to commemorate the royal patronage, which had resulted in the town's rise to fame by erecting a statue to George lll. This tribute to the resort's most illustrious visitor was commissioned from Coade and Sealey's Ornamental Stone Manufactory in Lambeth. It was made in artificial Coade Stone and was finished and shipped to Weymouth in October 1804. The King's statue was not erected on its present site until 5 years later, when the leading townsmen, who had commissioned it, presented the statue to the Borough. |
|
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Dominating the three-acre site of Green College, Oxford, is the eighteenth-century Radcliffe Observatory. The building functioned as an observatory for 160 years from 1773 until 1934, when the previous owners (the Radcliffe Trustees) decided to sell it and to erect a new observatory in Pretoria, South Africa. The figures of the Eight Winds appeared on the original Tower of the Winds in Athens and were used by the sculptor John Bacon (1740-99) as the basis for his designs for the flying figures round the top of the stonework of the Observatory. | |
|
|
Below the level of the balcony are the Signs of the Zodiac modeled for the Coade factory by J. C. F. Rossi, In between the Signs of the Zodiac on the north face are the three Morning, Noon and Evening panels, also in Coade stone, which were the work of a third sculptor, Robert Smirke. |
| The condition of the Windrush stone of which the Eight Winds featured round the top of the tower of the winds are made compares unfavourably with that of the Coade stone of the Zodiac and other figures below, which has successfully withstood the elements for two centuries. | |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| For Dorset acquainted readers the Stag at Stag Gate on the A31 is a well know piece of Coade Stone. The interesting fact is that it has five legs. This is because when originally viewed from the house, only 3 legs could be seen. The owner requested a fifth leg to be added to correct the view. This fifth leg is rather crude and has just be stuck on the side and appeared to have been something found on the floor of Mrs.Coade's Manufactory |  |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| There
are many more examples of Coade Stone that exist today and these can be
found in Alison Kelly's Book "Mrs. Coade's Stone" Published in
1990 by "The Self Publishing Association Ltd".
In spite of the belief that ball clay was the main ingredient (60-70%), its exact make-up is still unknown. There is still controversy about the composition of Coade Stone and its process of manufacture. although samples found when the London factory was demolished seem to indicate they contained Kaolinite and white mica. There was also a high content of potassium, sodium, and titanium. Although used today to produce a hard, white acid resistant porcelain, the use of titanium in Mrs. Coade's time was exceptional and therefore probably accidental. However no one will know for sure exactly how Mrs. Coade produced such a long lasting artificial moulded stone. |
|
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
| As yet it has not been established where the ball clay used in manufacture of Coade stone was sourced. Could it have been Purbeck clay with the Coades originating from Lyme Regis? As yet we don't know. (In Georgian times it was customary in business to deal with friends & relatives first. Mrs. Coade's family origins were Devon based so it is more likely that Devon Ball clay was used, unless they had friends in Wareham.) | |
