Details of Sculptor

Surname

Blanchard

Alternative Surname

First Name

Mark H

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1816 -

Flourished

Year of Death

Biographical Details

He was born on 9 November 1816 at Portsea, Hants and christened on 30 August 1817. After working at the Coade Factory during its declining years he set up on his own account as a manufacturer of terracotta architectural ornaments and sculpture in Blackfriars Road, south London. He probably bought some of the Coade moulds when they were finally sold off in 1843, and some of his earlier works are remarkably similar in both material and design to pieces made by the Coade Factory. He later produced more strongly coloured terracottas. On 29 December 1855 he advertised in The Builder that he was ‘late of Coade’s original works and successor to them in the manufacture of this invaluable material’ (quoted by Kelly 1990, 51). John Marriott Blashfield established a rival ornamental terracotta firm after seeing Blanchard’s prizewinning exhibits at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (7-9). At the sales of Blanchard’s stock in trade held on 27 March 1860 and 5 April 1861 the lots included statues based on works by John Bell, Sir Richard Westmacott and John Gibson (1-4), as well as pieces designed for Mrs Coade by John Bacon RA, Charles Felix Rossi and John Flaxman RA.
His most important contract was for architectural ornaments at the Victoria and Albert Museum (14). During the 1870s he moved to Bishops Waltham, Hants, where his factory began to concentrate on producing utilitarian bricks and roofing and paving tiles. The 1881 census lists him in Bishop’s Waltham with his wife and two adult children.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 56; Penny 1977 (1), 13; Kelly 1978, 25; Kelly 1990, 51, 313; Stratton 1993, passim
Archival References: 1881 census; GPC; IGI
Auction Catalogues: Blanchard 1860; Blanchard 1861