Details of Sculptor

Surname

Burman

Alternative Surname

First Name

Belthasar

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1674-80

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The son of Thomas Burman and his wife, Rebekah, he is likely to have trained with his father before becoming free by patrimony of the Masons’ Company in July 1678. In 1674 he inherited his father’s house and yard in Drury Lane, where his mother continued the business until he had completed his training. He carved the magnificent free-standing figure of Rachel, Countess of Bath (†1680), standing in coronation robes on a circular pedestal (2). This, except for the pedestal, is a replica of the elder Burman’s statue of the Countess of Shrewsbury at St John’s College, Cambridge. He also signed the monument to Brian Duppa in Westminster Abbey, an inscribed tablet with carved floral and foliate side scrolls and an apron carved with an angel’s head and wings (1).
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 70-71
Archival References: Masons’ Co, Freemen, fol 4, 2 July 1676