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Lot Essay
For his retirement from a successful political career, James Johnston (1643-1737), the renowned Secretary of State for Scotland under William III, constructed a magnificent villa on the Thames at Twickenham. At the entrance to the gardens of Orleans House, as it came to be known, Johnston erected a pair of lifelike lead dogs that he commissioned from the sculptor John Nost. The present lot is the second known version of one of these two dogs to have survived. The Johnston dogs became a famous feature of life at Twickenham and were immortalized in the writings of Johnston’s neighbour, Alexander Pope:
And Twick’nham such, which fairer scenes enrich, Grots, statues, urns, and Jo--n's Dog and Bitch (from ‘Spenser: The Alley’, 1709, see J. Butt, ed., The Poems of Alexander Pope, vol. 1., 1963)
Pope disliked Johnston and resented his handsome government pension but was obliged to pass Johnston’s house every time he visited his friend Lady Suffolk at Marble Hill.
Johnston’s dogs remained in place at Twickenham until they were taken back to France by Louis-Phillippe, Duc d'Orléans (and later King of the French), after he lived in exile at Johnston’s old house between 1813 and 1815. They later found their way to the musée Condé at Chantilly. The present dog is the same as one of the Chantilly dogs, looking to its right, although it differs in the disposition of the ears, which on the Chantilly dogs are raised slightly from the face, rather than hanging closer to the face, as on the present sculpture.
John Nost, sculptor, was born in Mechelen, Flanders, but worked in London at Hyde Park Corner making lead statuary for Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth House and Castle Howard, among others. He was the premier lead sculptor in London by the time of Johnston’s commission, which must have been sometime from 1702, when work started on the villa, and 1709, when Pope wrote his ditty noting Johnston’s dogs. The present lot was noted in the collections of Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet in 1782 at West Wycombe Park. It is possible it was acquired by his father in the 1712 sale of Nost’s effects after his death. It is also possible that the polychrome surface of the present dog or the dog itself was made by John Cheere who inherited Nost’s workshop and moulds. Cheere worked for Sir Francis Dashwood at various times between 1751 and 1778 and could have cast the present dog for his patron from Nost’s earlier model. The polychrome surface, which is not evident on the dogs at Chantilly, is more typical of Cheere, although it cannot be ruled out that the surface was added by Cheere to Nost’s creation during Cheere’s time at West Wycombe Park.
We gratefully acknowledge the research undertaken by Mr Bruce Lindsay.
And Twick’nham such, which fairer scenes enrich, Grots, statues, urns, and Jo--n's Dog and Bitch (from ‘Spenser: The Alley’, 1709, see J. Butt, ed., The Poems of Alexander Pope, vol. 1., 1963)
Pope disliked Johnston and resented his handsome government pension but was obliged to pass Johnston’s house every time he visited his friend Lady Suffolk at Marble Hill.
Johnston’s dogs remained in place at Twickenham until they were taken back to France by Louis-Phillippe, Duc d'Orléans (and later King of the French), after he lived in exile at Johnston’s old house between 1813 and 1815. They later found their way to the musée Condé at Chantilly. The present dog is the same as one of the Chantilly dogs, looking to its right, although it differs in the disposition of the ears, which on the Chantilly dogs are raised slightly from the face, rather than hanging closer to the face, as on the present sculpture.
John Nost, sculptor, was born in Mechelen, Flanders, but worked in London at Hyde Park Corner making lead statuary for Hampton Court Palace, Chatsworth House and Castle Howard, among others. He was the premier lead sculptor in London by the time of Johnston’s commission, which must have been sometime from 1702, when work started on the villa, and 1709, when Pope wrote his ditty noting Johnston’s dogs. The present lot was noted in the collections of Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Baronet in 1782 at West Wycombe Park. It is possible it was acquired by his father in the 1712 sale of Nost’s effects after his death. It is also possible that the polychrome surface of the present dog or the dog itself was made by John Cheere who inherited Nost’s workshop and moulds. Cheere worked for Sir Francis Dashwood at various times between 1751 and 1778 and could have cast the present dog for his patron from Nost’s earlier model. The polychrome surface, which is not evident on the dogs at Chantilly, is more typical of Cheere, although it cannot be ruled out that the surface was added by Cheere to Nost’s creation during Cheere’s time at West Wycombe Park.
We gratefully acknowledge the research undertaken by Mr Bruce Lindsay.