Sold December 1987 at Reeds Rains, Manchester, with other contents from the Reform Club, Manchester. The club, designed by the architect Salomons in 1870, closed earlier that year. Matthew Noble (1818 - 1876) specialised in portrait busts of historical personalities and contemporary celebrities. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1845 until 1876. Cromwell was a favourite subject: he provided two busts for the Reform Club in London (1860 and 1864); one for the Bethnal Green Museum, London (1862); and another for Manchester City Hall (1874). A bronze statue of Cromwell was erected in Deansgate in 1875, shortly before Noble's death. See Robert Gunnis Dictionary of British Sculptors, Odhams Press, London, pp. 274 - 275.