Details of Sculptor

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Surname	Van der Meulen	Alternative Surname
First Name	John Ferdinand	Initial of Surname	V
Year of Birth/Baptism		Flourished	1765-80
Year of Death
Biographical Details	Though Van der Meulen showed extensively with the Free Society and other exhibiting societies between 1765 and 1780, none of his works appears to have survived. On 24 May 1765 he received a premium from the Society of Arts (8) and another followed in 1767 (9), at which time he lived in Little Castle Street, Oxford Road. In 1768 he sent in a model for the statue of Sir William Harpur to be erected at Bedford School, but was unsuccessful and the commission was given to Benjamin Palmer (2). He was a minor beneficiary in Peter Scheemakers’s will and conceivably worked for him before Scheemakers departed for Antwerp in 1771. The son, Van der Meulen II, lived in Castle Street with his father in 1778-80. Literary References: Graves 1907, 263-4 ; Gunnis 1968, 406 Will: PROB 11/ 1082, 17 v-r (Peter Scheemakers)