St. James's Auctions
Auction 49 5 Oct 2021
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Albert Way (1805-1874), antiquary, an oval bronze portrait plaquette, dated 1850, by Richard Cockle Lucas, head r., inscribed behind, 'Albert Way. Esq. MA' and signed below truncation, 'R. C. Lucas Sculptor 1850', produced by the electrotype process, 188 x 139mm. (cf. Pyke, p. 83), extremely fine
*ex Collection Ralph Holland (1917-2012), Art Historian.
Albert Way was, in 1845, the founder of the Archaeological Institute; he was a leading authority on medieval seals and his collection of several thousand casts made by Robert Ready, was presented to the Society of Antiquaries by his widow. Way was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his MA in 1834. Between 1843 and 1865 he edited the 15th-century English-Latin dictionary, 'Promotorium Parvulorum' into 3 volumes for the Camden Society. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (who retain a wax portrait of him by Lucas).
Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883) was an eccentric but innovative sculptor, medallist and wax modeller and it is interesting to see him using the electrotype process as early as 1850. He would have been familiar with the process through his contacts at the British Museum (for whom he famously made two models of the Parthenon, firstly in 1687, after bombardment by the Venetians and secondly how it might be restored with the Elgin Marbles placed as he thought they should be). E. J. Pyke, Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, Oxford, 1973, p. 83, lists 3 wax portraits of Way by Lucas in the collections of Derek Sherborn, the Society of Antiquaries and the V & A (Bate Collection), the first of which is, like this piece, dated 1850.
(100-150 GBP)
*ex Collection Ralph Holland (1917-2012), Art Historian.
Albert Way was, in 1845, the founder of the Archaeological Institute; he was a leading authority on medieval seals and his collection of several thousand casts made by Robert Ready, was presented to the Society of Antiquaries by his widow. Way was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his MA in 1834. Between 1843 and 1865 he edited the 15th-century English-Latin dictionary, 'Promotorium Parvulorum' into 3 volumes for the Camden Society. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (who retain a wax portrait of him by Lucas).
Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883) was an eccentric but innovative sculptor, medallist and wax modeller and it is interesting to see him using the electrotype process as early as 1850. He would have been familiar with the process through his contacts at the British Museum (for whom he famously made two models of the Parthenon, firstly in 1687, after bombardment by the Venetians and secondly how it might be restored with the Elgin Marbles placed as he thought they should be). E. J. Pyke, Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, Oxford, 1973, p. 83, lists 3 wax portraits of Way by Lucas in the collections of Derek Sherborn, the Society of Antiquaries and the V & A (Bate Collection), the first of which is, like this piece, dated 1850.
(100-150 GBP)