Details of Sculptor

Surname

Bland

Alternative Surname

First Name

Thomas

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

?1799

Flourished

Year of Death

1865

Biographical Details

Bland worked in rural Westmorland in the mid-19th century. The son of a yeoman farmer, he inherited land at Reagill in the Vale of Lyvvenet, where he laid out an Italianate garden filled with his own sculpture and oil paintings (2). The statues included figures of Joseph Addison, Robert Burns, the geologist Hugh Miller and Sir Walter Scott, who was presented on a pedestal with three reliefs depicting characters from his novels. A statue of Music holding a lute symbolised the River Lyvvenet. The last of the paintings, which included local scenes and subjects from Shakespeare, were removed before 1910, but much of the sculpure remains in situ.
Bland also made an obelisk with a medallion portrait of King Charles II on the pedestal, to commemorate his halt at Black Dub in 1650 (3) and he set up a stone to mark the place where Joseph Addison’s forefathers had lived. In 1842 he carved the statue of Britannia and bas-reliefs on the octagonal column erected at Shap Wells Spa, Westmorland, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s accession (1). The north panel has a palm and olive wreath, emblematic of peace and plenty, surmounted by the Lowther arms, while the east panel presents the British lion, with its paw resting on a globe. On the east side is a relief of the goddess Hygeia, pouring medicinal waters from a goblet into a shell held by an aged invalid. A local guide published soon after noted that Bland was a self-taught sculptor and that he had donated the statue and reliefs (Westmorland 1851, 223). The sculptor celebrated the anniversary of the Queen’s accession each year by opening his garden to the public and engaging a band for the occasion.
Bland had at least one opportunity to further his artistic career: David Cox the Younger, impressed by some of his drawings, wished to introduce him to the London art world, but Bland was not interested in fame and the offer came to nothing. He died unmarried in September 1865.
Literary References: Bates 1855; Gunnis 1968, 56; Read 1982, 369