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Lot Essay
Eleanor Coade published a series of designs by John Bacon in her catalogue Coade's Gallery of 1799. The present pair of figures are based on a design for a Vestal and a Sybil [sic: Mrs Coade's spelling]. They were possibly the most successful designs of the Lambeth artificial stone manufacture. The earliest 'Vestal' was commissioned by Sir John Griffin Griffin for Audley End in 1773 at a cost of 15 guineas (A. Kelly, Mrs Coade's Stone, Upton-upon-Severn, 1990, p. 43). The earliest Sybil [sic] may also have been made for a chimneypiece at Audley End (op. cit., pp. 129-130, n. 18), suggesting that they were often intended to be viewed as a pair.
The pattern was subtly elaborated upon and nos. 34 and 35 of the same 1799 catalogue, shows each figure depicted with a scrolled candlebranch. The vestal virgin design was adapted very slightly in another design [no. 9] that was intended as pure sculpture, either for interior adornment or garden aggrandisement (A. Kelly, 'Coade Stone Interiors', Antique Collector, July 1986, p. 50, fig. 1).
The pattern was subtly elaborated upon and nos. 34 and 35 of the same 1799 catalogue, shows each figure depicted with a scrolled candlebranch. The vestal virgin design was adapted very slightly in another design [no. 9] that was intended as pure sculpture, either for interior adornment or garden aggrandisement (A. Kelly, 'Coade Stone Interiors', Antique Collector, July 1986, p. 50, fig. 1).