Details of Sculptor

Surname

Austin

Alternative Surname

First Name

Felix

Initial of Surname

A

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1817-72

Year of Death

Biographical Details

Austin described himself in the trade directories as an architect, statuary mason and sculptor as well as an artificial stone manufacturer. An article in The Builder of 1868 notes that a Dutchman, Van Spangen I, set up in competition with the Coade Factory in about 1820, when he established an artificial stone manufactory at Bow. He later went into partnership with a Mr Powell, but the firm broke up about 1828 and the moulds were purchased by Austin, who was then experimenting with a compound of Portland cement, broken stone, pounded tile and coarse sand.
He lived at 1-3 Keppel Row, New Road, Fitzroy Square from 1830 and had premises further down the street. In 1834 he was paid for five garden vases to Sir Francis Chantrey’s design (or at least to be placed according to his design) at Holkham Hall, Norfolk (11). Austin was joined by John Seeley before 1841 and they later opened premises at 24 Church Street, Rotherhithe. The Specimen Book of Austin and Seeley’s Artificial Stone Manufactury, published in 1841 in French and English, indicates that they imported or traded in artifical stone figures with France. The English title page reads ‘Collections of ornaments at Austin and Seeley’s Works, nearly opposite Trinity Church, New Road, London, for Gardens, Parks and Pleasure Grounds, consisting of fountains, tazzas, vases and pedestals, ornamental fish ponds, flower pots, sun-dials, sphinxes, eagles, lions &c, church fonts, tables, monuments, and screens, crosses, pinnacles and other Gothic decorations’. Special lines were the Medici and Borghese vases. The engravings were numbered, with measurements, but with prices suppled only in French currency (East Riding Archives Office, DDCC (2)/45A/22). In 1842 The Ecclesiologist mercilessly attacked Austin and Seeley’s artificial stone fonts.
Austin signed a number of tablets alone. Those to Frances Samwell (6) and Sophia Pym (7) also carried Seeley’s signature. Like his predecessor, Mrs Coade, Austin was shrewd enough to employ leading architects to work for him. He provided oriental vases designed by Sydney Smirke for the Pantheon Bazaar in 1833 and a pedestal for Ironmongers’ Hall in 1834. J B Papworth and others designed a number of large fountains for him (12, 13, 14). The firm was still operating in 1872, when the Duke of Atholl paid £25 for a composition statue, Diana and a deer (Archives Duke of Atholl, quoted by RG/JP, 1, 41). His tradecard is listed under ‘Sculptors and Masons’ in the Heal Collection, BM, 106.2.
MGS
Literary References: ‘Notice of Some Manufacturers in Artificial Stone’, The Conductor1834-5 (LMA 45.09 AUS 2.0); Ecclesiologist, 1842, 1, 127; Builder, 25 July 1868, 546; Hadfield 1960, 280; Gunnis 1960 (3); Gunnis 1968, 22-3; Kelly 1990, 51, 5 (inf. Gerardine Mulcahy)