Stone pedestal for lead shepherdess with lamb
John Nost II (d. London 1729)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1700 - 1730
Materials
Stone
Place of origin
London
Collection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515124.2
Summary
Stone pedestal for lead shepherdess with lamb, John Nost II (died London 1729) or Andrew Carpenter (c. 1677 – London 1737), after a model by John Nost I (Mechelen c.1655 – London 1710), c. 1700-30.
Full description
This early 18th-century figure of a shepherdess is likely to have been produced in the Hyde Park Corner workshops of John Nost II (died 1729) or Andrew Carpenter, the former principal assistant to Nost I (died 1710) who set up independently in around 1703. Nost II or Carpenter is attributed to the four paired shepherds and shepherdesses mounted on the terrace at Powis Castle, one of which is adapted from the same model as the present statue (NT 1180991.3; NT 1180991 the set; see Davis 1991, p.40 pl.13). A third lead figure maker, Edward Hurst, who was also neighbour to Nost and Carpenter, supplied a similar shepherdess holding a lamb to Charlecote Park in 1718 (NT 533387). In each case the female figure is paired with a male piping shepherd. These variant casts of the shepherdess with lamb are likely to originate from a model produced by the elder John Nost, as they are associated with a figure offered at his posthumous sale in 1712 (O’Connell 1987). ‘A Shepherdess with a lamb’ (lot 70), paired with a ‘Shepherd and dog, big as the life, lead’ (lot 69), were sold alongside a ‘Piping Shepherd’ and shepherdess (lots 31-2) which broadly describe the four figures at Powis. Variations in design met consumer demand but were also the inevitable result of having to renew worn-out moulds. Appendages such as limbs, heads, and accessories were cast separately, so variations in design could be incorporated easily into a figure to achieve different poses or characteristics. The models themselves were also made from clay and could be modified as necessary. Rustic figures like shepherds, milkmaids, haymakers, and gardeners were particularly popular during the first half of the 18th century, with earlier models such as this example incorporating elements of classical dress to evoke the ideal pastoral landscapes of Arcadia. As the Rococo became the dominant style from the 1730s, these classicising features were replaced with contemporary fashions: see, for example, NT 515121, a later model of the shepherdess at Anglesey Abbey by John Cheere (Davis 1991, pp. 58-65). Lead casts were customarily painted in ‘life-like’ colours (see Jackson-Stops 1987, pp.92-4). An identical figure to the present cast was sold in a pair with a piping shepherd at Christies, 10 November 2005 (lot 525, attributed to John Nost I, provenance H.R.H. The Duke of York (1763-1827), Oatlands Park, Surrey). Lord Fairhaven purchased the shepherdess with lamb from his regular statuary dealer Bert Crowther in December 1948. The provenance given by Crowther is Bradfield House, between Willand and Cullompton, Devon, however a photograph of the statue attached to the receipt is inscribed by Lord Fairhaven ‘from Bicton Collompton’ [sic]. Perhaps in confusion, Lord Fairhaven refers to the celebrated gardens of Bicton Park, Devon, known for its ornamental lead statuary (Country Life, 12 December 1903, pp. 854-62). In 1948 Bicton was the estate of the 21st Baron Clinton (1863-1957) whose step-mother Margaret was the daughter of Sir John Walrond, 1st Baronet (1818-89), of Bradfield House. Crowther states that the statue was brought from Bradfield, ‘lately the seat of The Hon. C.M.L. Adams’, referring to the Honorable Charlotte Margaret Lothian Adams, the first wife of Sir John Walrond’s grandson the 2nd Baron Walrond (1905-66). It is not impossible, then, that the statue passed from Bicton to Bradfield. Alice Rylance-Watson 2020
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
John Nost II (d. London 1729), sculptor Andrew Carpenter (c.1677 - London 1737) , sculptor after John Nost I (Mechelen c.1660 – London 1710-1713), sculptor
References
Davis 1991: John Davis, Antique Garden Ornament, 300 years of creativity: Artists, manufacturers & materials, Woodbridge 1991, pp. 40, pls 11-14, pp. 45-7, 58-65. O'Connell 1987: Sheila O'Connell, The Nosts: A Revision of the Family History, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 129, No. 1017, Special Issue on European Sculpture (Dec., 1987), pp. 802-806. Jackson-Stops 1987: Gervase Jackson-Stops, ‘New Deities for Old Parterres: The Painting of Lead Statues’, Country Life, (1987) pp. 92-4. Roper 1964: Lanning Roper, The Gardens of Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire. The Home of Lord Fairhaven, London 1964, pp. 60-1, pl. 38. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 158.