Details of Sculptor

Surname

Davy

Alternative Surname

First Name

George

Initial of Surname

D

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1767-73

Year of Death

Biographical Details

George Davy, an artificial stone manufacturer, took over the premises in Goulston Square, Whitechapel, London, formerly occupied by Daniel Pincot, some time between February and October 1767, when he advertised ‘a large Quantity of Goods of near 100 different Subjects, such as Figures, Busts, Tablets, Friezes, Medalions, Vases, Capitals of Different Orders of various Sizes’ for sale at his warehouse at 18 Long Acre, near Covent Garden. He claimed that these goods were ‘more durable and higher finished than natural stone’ and, furthermore, undertook to sell them at the same price or cheaper than any equivalent work available in plaster or wood (Daily Ad, 23 October 1767). At the end of December 1767 there was a sale of artificial stone produced at Goulston Square over the last year, at Christie’s, perhaps including work by both Davy and Pincot. The catalogue survives in the Christie archive and shows that prices were considerably lower than those of comparable items listed in the catalogue of the Coade Factory of Lambeth, published in 1783.
In March 1768 Davy announced that a large quantity of his artificial stone had been sold by John Moreing at the Great Sale Room in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, adding ‘if due Encouragement is given to this Undertaking, the Proprietor intends to continue the Manufactory’ (Daily Ad, 23/24 March 1768). Further sales at Moreing’s auction house and then at Blyth’s sale room in Dean Street, Soho were advertised throughout 1768 and in 1770. The public response appears to have been less than enthusiastic for Davy commented, ‘the Proprietor has reason to think that many Gentlemen entertain a less opinion of Artificial Stone by the Reports of some whose Interest it may be to deprecate it’ (Daily Ad, 27 May 1768).
Davy’s last known advertisements appeared in April 1771 (Daily Ad, 29 April 1771) and by July 1773 he was financially ruined. He wrote to his patron, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham requesting payment for four medallions of Alexander and Hercules (6), explaining that they ‘were made by your particular Order and at the Sale I bought them for your Lordship but am now so poor that I cannot clare [sic] the lots therefore let me intreat your Lordship to be so kind as to advance me the money or else the goods will be resold and all the charges attending it will fall on me’. He also informed him that if he had any further orders he should approach a ‘Mr Smith at Nightsbridge’ who had bought all his moulds (Rockingham Vouchers, Sheffield City Library, No 1, microfilm A314). In October 1773 Davy wrote a yet more desperate letter to the Duke of Northumberland asking him to settle a bill for £14 8s for various pieces of artificial stone (5),‘for I must Actually go to Prison in a City Action if I can’t raise fifteen pounds by the 15th or 16th of this month’ (Davy/Northumberland).
Rockingham bought reliefs, busts and statues after the antique from Davy, as well as a statue of a druid (2) and charity children (7), both subjects later produced by the Coade Factory. Some of Davy’s moulds may still have been in use at Lambeth more than 50 years later, for it seems likely that ‘Mr Smith at Nightsbridge’ was a predecessor or partner of Bridges of Knightsbridge whose factory was bought by Mrs Coade in 1775. This suggestion of a direct connection between Davy, Bridges and Coade is supported by the production of large-scale statues of druids by all three businesses (see Bridges, of Knightsbridge, 1 and Coade Factory, of Lambeth, 207).
EH
Literary References: Valpy 1986, 210-5, 220-1; Coade 1990, 33; Penny 1990, 879
Archival References: Rockingham Vouchers; Davy/Northumberland
Auction References: Pincot and Davy 1767; Davy 1768 (1); Davy 1768 (2); Davy 1768 (3); Davy 1768 (4); Davy 1770