Details of Sculptor

Surname

Beattie

Alternative Surname

First Name

William

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1829-68

Year of Death

Biographical Details

William Beattie was a versatile sculptor and modeller who worked in several media, including silver. Between 1829 and 1867 he showed at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, the Royal Scottish Academy, the Liverpool Academy and the Birmingham Society of Arts, from addresses in London, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Edinburgh. His first exhibit was an embossed silver plate illustrating John Knox admonishing Mary Queen of Scots, after a painting by Sir William Allan.This was followed by Adam and Eve lamenting the death of Abel in silver (BI, London, 1837, 450 and R Sc A, Edinburgh, 1846, 556), several portrait busts, a bronze medallion of Lord Elcho and a statue of Lord Bacon as Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth I (33, 1).
For Elkington & Co he designed a silver vase representing The triumph of science and the industrial arts in the Great Exhibition, which was prominently displayed by the firm at the exhibition. It was decorated with four statuettes of ‘Newton, Bacon, Shakespeare, and Watt, commemorating Astronomy, Philosophy, Poetry, and Mechanics respectively’ and with four bas-reliefs displaying ‘the practical operations of Science and Art’ between them. The figures on the base represented ‘War, Rebellion, Hatred, and Revenge overthrown’ and the whole was surmounted by a figure of Prince Albert ‘who as patron of the Exhibition, is rewarding the successful contributors’ (AJ Cat 1851, 195).
Other designs for testimonial plate included an épergne presented to Mr Ewing of Glasgow in 1860 and a vase presented to the family of John Strang, the City Chamberlain of Glasgow, in 1864. Beattie seems to have been particularly successful as a designer of groups for production in parian ware and he modelled for several Staffordshire manufacturers including Adams, Bates, Copeland, Minton, Wedgwood, Sir James Duke and Brown-Westhead and Moore. He died some time before 14 November 1868 when the Illustrated London News published a woodcut of his last work, an ornament for the mess table of the 92nd Highlanders. It took the form of a Peterhead granite obelisk with silver figures of soldiers at the base, ‘most beautifully and carefully modelled by the late Mr W. Beattie’(ILN, 14 November 1868, 473, 478).
Literary References: ILN, 9 August 1851, 189; 25 February 1860, 180; 5 March 1864, 232-3; Gunnis 1968, 43; Atterbury 1989, 260