BY HUMPHREY HOPPER (1767-1834)

The sculptor Humphrey Hopper exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1799 to 1834 and was awarded the Gold Medal for his 'Death of Meleager' in 1803. His most famous work is the marble monument to General Hay in St. Paul's Cathedral, which was commissioned in 1814. In addition to his marble busts and statues, Hopper produced a variety of plaster and terracotta figures after the Antique, which were designed to support candelabra, lamps and clocks. Virtually identical figures dated Decr.1 1806 and signed by Hopper were sold at Christie's London, 26 April 1990, lot 13 and 21 June 1990, lot 4, respectively. Small-scale plaster neo-classical candlesticks were also produced by a number of other manufacturers, most notably George Bullock (1782/3-1818) Benjamin Shout and his son Robert of 18 High Holborn, London. See Timothy Clifford, "The Plaster Shops of the Rococo and Neo-classical Era in Britain" Journal of the History of Collections, 4, No. 1 (1992), pp 36-65