Details of Sculptor

Surname

Franceys

Alternative Surname

First Name

Samuel and Thomas, of Liverpool

Initial of Surname

F

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

c1802-19

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The brothers ran the leading firm of monumental masons in Liverpool between c1802 and 1819. Little is known of their background but they may have been related to the Samuel Franceys who was employed on decorative stucco-work at Melbourne Hall, Derbys, in 1760 (Archives, Marquis of Lothian, in Gunnis 1968, 156). According to one account they established themselves as builders and plasterers in Pleasant Street, Liverpool c1802 and ‘having a taste for art, they entered into the manufacture of a sort of composition of oil stucco, then much in vogue for chimney pieces and ceilings’ which ‘led to the execution of works in marble’ (Picton II, 1875, 214-5). By 1812 a wide range of products could be viewed at the firm’s premises in Brownlow Hill. These included ‘a great variety of marble chimneypieces ... in the Egyptian, Grecian, Gothic and modern taste, and in various species of the most beautiful Italian, Egyptian, and British marbles. Marble tables for halls, sideboards, &c monuments, plain, or sculptured after elegant designs ... various figures in marble, bronze and artificial stone to support dials and lamps; statues, busts &c., of excellent execution’, (Stranger in Liverpool 1812, 139).
Their monuments could be quite elaborate. That to Joseph Brandreth, physician to the Duke of Gloucester and Lord Derby and founder of the Liverpool Dispensary, has a relief of the Good Samaritan caring for the unfortunate traveller, while the Cumming dramatically depicts a tomb, riven apart on the Day of Judgement and the mother and daughter ascending from it (27, 26). The figure of Faith embracing a cross on the memorial to Ursula Lloyd at Llanbedr was first used on the memorial to John Ford in Chester Cathedral (15, 7).
The German sculptor F A Legé was employed by the firm and John Gibson, William Spence and Thomas Duckett all began their careers in the Franceys workshops. When Samuel Franceys left the business and the partnership was dissolved in 1819 (Euro Mag, 1819, 282) Spence took his place. The reconstructed firm of Franceys and Spence continued in operation until about 1844, though Samuel Franceys died much earlier, on 20 May 1829. He was buried in the graveyard of the Wesleyan Chapel in Brunswick Street, Liverpool. Another family member was Mary Franceys, ‘Sculptor’ who is listed at 25 Pleasant Street in the Liverpool Directory for 1823-24.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 156-7; Physick 1969, 41-2, 180; Yarrington 1988, 119; Curtis 1989, passim