Details of Sculptor

Surname

Wood

Alternative Surname

First Name

Thomas, of London

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

c1760

Flourished

Year of Death

Biographical Details

He was the son of John Wood, mason, of ‘Rose Street, St Luke’s, Old Street’, who had become free by redemption in 1770. Young Wood was bound apprentice to his father on 6 October 1774 and later went into partnership with John Gilliam. From 1793 onwards they did a great deal of masonry work at Somerset House, receiving a total payment of £1,797 for that year alone, a period when they were also employed at the Rolls House (Gunnis 1968, 441 incorrectly cites PRO, Works 5/82). From 1808-1810 Wood (now on his own) was employed at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, where he received £1,695 for sundry work including ‘Pedestalls, ballustrades, and the coping’. From 1812 until 1815 he worked under James Wyatt at the Palace of Westminster (2).
He may conceivably be the Thomas Wood whose tradecard of 1795 is engraved with a putto carving the following on a plinth: ‘Thomas Wood Statuary. Monuments and Chimney Pieces, executed in the neatest manner/ No 25/ Palace Street/ Pimlico/ near Buckingham Gate’. Two putti dance around a column with ribbons inscribed with the words ‘Carving and Guilding Executed’ (BM Heal 106.24).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 440; Webb 1999, 36