AN ENGLISH CARVED IVORY MINIATURE PORTRAIT BUST OF THE VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, by Matthew Noble, the sitter looking to his left and with long sideburns and well carved physiognomy, his shoulders draped with robes partially obscuring an order, inscribed to the reverse, VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.K.C. &c &c and by the sculptor M.NOBLE.Sc, on a circular spreading socle with variegated cream and burnt-orange pedestal with stepped spreading foot and square base, third quarter 19th Century

Details

AN ENGLISH CARVED IVORY MINIATURE PORTRAIT BUST OF THE VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, by Matthew Noble, the sitter looking to his left and with long sideburns and well carved physiognomy, his shoulders draped with robes partially obscuring an order, inscribed to the reverse, VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.K.C. &c &c and by the sculptor M.NOBLE.S<->c, on a circular spreading socle with variegated cream and burnt-orange pedestal with stepped spreading foot and square base, third quarter 19th Century
the bust: 5¼in. (13.3cm.) high
overall: 10in. (25.5cm.) high

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
R.Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851, London, 1951, pp. 274-275.

Lot Essay

Matthew Noble (d.1876) studied sculpture in London under John Francis (d. 1861). Although first exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1845, he was not to become well-known with the public until his monument to Wellington was erected in Manchester in 1856, a commission which he had been awarded as a result of a competition.
The present ivory portrait bust of Viscount Palmerston is most probably a smaller replica of the marble bust of the statesman, commissioned for the Reform Club in 1860 and exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year.

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