Details of Sculptor

Surname

Birch

Alternative Surname

First Name

Robert

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1726-37

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Birch worked at Thoresby Hall, during the 1720s and 1730s. A first payment, for a Derbyshire marble chimneypiece ‘which was delivered before His Grace’s death and is now in the wardrobe at Thoresby’, is recorded in the executors’ accounts of the estate of Evelyn, 1st Duke of Kingston, † 1726 (Archives, Lord Monson, in GPC) (1). Birch subsequently worked for the 2nd Duke, receiving a payment of £24 4s 4d in 1736 for ‘paving the marble room at the stables with diamond paving and black marble squares’. He also supplied ‘piers for the garden’ and a marble chimneypiece in 1737 (Archives, Earl Manvers, Nottingham Univ 4544, in GPC) (2).
Gunnis notes that he made several chimneypieces for Welbeck Abbey, including those for the Duke of Portland’s bedroom and dressing room and for the Duchess’s bedroom, in 1746 to 1747 (Welbeck Abbey Archives, cited by Gunnis 1968, 53). However, another source suggests that these were supplied by a firm called Thomas Birch and Co (Turberville 1938-9, vol 1, 394).
Literary References: Turberville 1938-9, vol 1, 394; Gunnis 1968, 53
Archival References: GPC