Details of Sculptor

Surname

Bridges

Alternative Surname

First Name

of Knightsbridge

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1775

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Bridges was an artificial stone manufacturer, whose workshop was in Knightsbridge, London. On 26 May 1775, his stock-in-trade, consisting of ‘a great Variety of Statues, Vases, Bustos, and various kinds of Ornaments in Artificial Stone’ was sold by Messrs Christie, on the occasion of his ‘quitting that Branch of Business’ (Public Ad, 24 May 1775, 4). Among the lots sold were medallions of the kings Alfred and Ethelred (8, 9); busts of Homer and Pitt (6, 7), statues of Ceres, Flora and Samson (2, 3, 5) and statuettes of Rubens and Van Dyck (4). A number of the lots, including a statue of a druid (1), were purchased by Eleanor Coade (see Coade Factory, of Lambeth). She also bought the Knightsbridge factory itself, for in December 1778 she announced that she intended to sell all the equipment of ‘Mrs COADE’s Manufactory at Knightsbridge ... the Whole to be sold extremely cheap, on Account of clearing the Premises, the Business being carried on at King’s Arms’ Stairs, Lambeth’ (Daily Ad, 24 December 1778). Some of Bridges’s moulds appear to have remained in use at the Coade factory, including those for the statue of a druid, which Bridges himself had probably acquired indirectly from George Davy.
EH
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 61; Valpy 1986, 217-8, 222; Kelly 1990, 34, 44-5, 134
Auction Catalogues: Bridges 1775; Coade Factory 1779