Details of Sculptor

Surname

Lovell

Alternative Surname

First Name

James

Initial of Surname

L

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1747-77

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Nothing is known of Lovell’s background or training, but McCarthy suggests that he may have been a pupil in the studio of Peter Scheemakers and Laurent Delvaux. The earliest evidence of his activities dates from 16 January 1747, when he received a payment of £100 from Sir James Dashwood, perhaps for decorative work at West Wycombe Park. He was then working at Stowe where on 31 January he was paid £8 14s ‘on balance for a year’s carving’, followed by another payment of two guineas on 23 May (Stowe Building and Repair Accounts in McCarthy 1973, 222). Over the course of the next 30 years Lovell executed a considerable amount of carving at Stowe, including chimneypieces, architectural ornaments in various materials, reliefs and statues (15, 17, 20, 23-30).
Lovell was seen by Gunnis as a protégé of Horace Walpole because of two linked commissions. In 1756 Lovell carved the Montagu family monument at Horton (3). Walpole apparently designed this and supervised Lovell's work, for he wrote to Frederick Montagu on 28 August 1756, ‘I saw Lovel today, he is very far advanced, and executes to perfection; you will be quite satisfied; I am not discontent with my design now I see how well it succeeds’ (HWC, vol 9, 195). Two years later Lovell carved the monument to Galfridus Mann (4), designed by Walpole’s friend Richard Bentley. There is no evidence of further patronage by Walpole. Other monuments by the sculptor include the Fitzwalter, a ‘large and magnificent architectural work, with a white-marble urn set in an alcove of green marble’ (Gunnis 1968, 244) (2).
He worked with the architect Sanderson Miller on a number of occasions, for instance at Wroxted Abbey, Belhus and Hagley Hall. He supplied a rococo chimneypiece for the hall at Hagley (13) and one in the dining room is also thought to be his work because it has terms identical to those of the state dressing room chimneypiece at Stowe (15). Furthermore, Lovell appears to have supervised the decorative work at Hagley. For Miller’s own house, Radway Grange, Warks, he made a statue which Bishop Pococke described as, ‘Caractacus in chains, modelled, under Mr Miller’s directions, by a countryman of great genius now established in London’ (Dickins and Stanton 1910, 270) (8). Lovell worked in conjunction with the London carpenter and builder John Hobcraft at Stowe, Belhus, Croome Court and at Newton Paddox, Warks, where he received a payment of £293 17s for unidentified work in 1768.
Walpole noted that Lovell had his premises in ‘Mortimer Street near Oxford Road’ (HWC, vol 35, 644) but by September 1766, when one of Lovell’s employees, a Thomas Austin, was tried for stealing a piece of Siena marble from his master, he had moved to Charles Street. Another assistant, John Marsden of Titchfield Street, Marylebone, gave evidence in the case (The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, ref t17660903-20, 3 September 1766). Two years later ‘James Lovell, of St Mary le Bonne, carver and mason’ became bankrupt (London Mag, 1768, vol 37, 711), because of his over-reliance on a narrow circle of aristocratic patrons. He was obliged to move to premises in Wall Street, which he rented from Lord Temple for £20 a year. In spite of these difficulties he continued in business until 1777 or later.
EH
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 244; McCarthy 1973, 220-32; Cornforth 1989, 152-5; Beard 1993, 88-110; Craske 2000 (2), 113 n35