Statue of Queen Anne
| Browse information by: Location Makers General Information Classification Object Parts Object Condition History References Photographs |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright for Photograph: Creative Commons |
Location
| Street: | The Ridge |
| Town: | Hastings |
| Parish: | Hastings |
| Council: | Hastings Borough Council |
| County: | East Sussex |
| Postcode: | TN37 |
| Location on Google Map | |
| Object setting: | Garden |
| Access is: | Private |
| Location note: | In the grounds of Holmhurst St. Mary's, Baldslow, next to St. Annes House |
| In the AZ book: | East Sussex |
| Page: | 105 |
| Grid reference: | J9 |
| The A-Z books used are A-Z East Sussex and A-Z West Sussex (Editions 1A 2005). Geographers' A-Z Map Company Ltd. Sevenoaks. | |
| OS Reference: | TQ800130 |
| Previous location: | Outside the entrance of St. Pauls Cathedral, Ludgate Hill, London.(Moved 1881) |
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Makers
| Name : | Frances Bird |
| Role: | Sculptor |
| Qualify: | assisted by |
| Name : | Sir Christopher Wren |
| Role: | Architect |
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General Information
| Commissioned by: | Committee for St. Paul's Church |
| Installation date: | 1712 |
| Unveiling date: | 07/07/1713 |
| Work is: | Extant |
| Object listing: | Grade II*: particularly important and of more than special interest |
| Building listing: | II* |
| Description: | The Queen is represented standing, the crown on her head, the Order of St. George round her neck, and with the sceptre in her right hand and the orb in her left. Her sceptre is held pointing downwards. The Queen looks imperiously upwards and to her right. The statue has a substantial oval self-base. The plinth is also oval in general section, with an elaborate cornice, and four projections, corresponding with the four surrounding allegorical figures. Between the projections are panels with frame mouldings. The whole structure stands on a circular platform... To the front of the plinth stands a cartouche with the Royal Arms. Britannia, to the left of it, supports it with her left hand. From the four projections on the plinth, volutes curve outwards and down to form seats for the four female personifications. ...Britannia was looking upwards to her left, and wearing a laurel wreath upon her head. She is amply dressed, with Minerva's breastplate with a gorgon mask, worn as a sash. With her right hand she supports a metal trident. Her left hand is resting on the cartouche with the Royal Arms. ''France'' is seated and looking slightly downwards to her right. She is amply clad and wears on her head a helmet with three fleurs-de-lis on the visor, surmounted by a plume sweeping back. Her right hand rests on a substantial truncheon, whose other end is upon the ground.. With her right hand she holds a large mural crown, which rests on her advanced left leg. Unlike Britannia, who is opposite to her at the front of the monument, she has no physical contact with the cartouche with the Royal Arms. ''America'' is to the back of the monument on the North side. She looks upwards to her right and wears a feathered head-dress. Her body is naked, except for a feathered skirt and a drapery traversing her loins. This hangs between her legs and folds about her right arm. Her hair falls onto her shoulders. She has a quiver of arrows on her back, supported by a strap, which appears over her left shoulder. In her left hand she supports a metal bow. Her right hand is raised and appears to have been clasping something, possibly an arrow. Her naked right foot rests on a severed, bearded male head, behind which stands a large lizard. ''Ireland'' is seated at the back on the south side. She is well draped but has a bare left breast. Her hair is loose and hangs down her back. A harp rests on her right thigh, supported by both hands. (Taken from the description of the 1886 identical replica by Richard Belt and Louis Auguste Malempre, currently on the site of the original outside St. Pauls Cathedral. See PMSA Online Database, Central London: CLCOL215) |
| Iconographical description: | ...Britannia was looking upwards to her left, and wearing a laurel wreath upon her head. She is amply dressed, with Minerva's breastplate with a gorgon mask, worn as a sash. With her right hand she supports a metal trident. Her left hand is resting on the cartouche with the Royal Arms. ''France'' is seated and looking slightly downwards to her right. She is amply clad and wears on her head a helmet with three fleurs-de-lis on the visor, surmounted by a plume sweeping back. Her right hand rests on a substantial truncheon, whose other end is upon the ground.. With her right hand she holds a large mural crown, which rests on her advanced left leg. Unlike Britannia, who is opposite to her at the front of the monument, she has no physical contact with the cartouche with the Royal Arms. ''America'' is to the back of the monument on the North side. She looks upwards to her right and wears a feathered head-dress. Her body is naked, except for a feathered skirt and a drapery traversing her loins. This hangs between her legs and folds about her right arm. Her hair falls onto her shoulders. She has a quiver of arrows on her back, supported by a strap, which appears over her left shoulder. In her left hand she supports a metal bow. Her right hand is raised and appears to have been clasping something, possibly an arrow. Her naked right foot rests on a severed, bearded male head, behind which stands a large lizard. ''Ireland'' is seated at the back on the south side. She is well draped but has a bare left breast. Her hair is loose and hangs down her back. A harp rests on her right thigh, supported by both hands. (Taken from the description of the 1886 identical replica by Richard Belt and Lous Auguste Malempre, currently on the site of the original outside St. Pauls Cathedral. See PMSA Online Database, Central London: CLCOL215) |
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Classification
| Categories: | Sculptural, Roadside / Wayside, Composite, Free Standing, Commemorative |
| Object type1: | Statue |
| Object type2: | Sculpture |
| Subject type1: | Figurative |
| Subject subtype1: | Group |
| Subject type2: | Allegorical |
| Subject subtype1: | Standing |
| Subject type3: | Portrait |
| Subject subtype1: | Standing |
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Object Parts
| Part 1: | Stepped base (3) |
| Material: | Stone |
| Height (cm): | 100 |
| Width (cm): | 500 |
| Depth (cm): | 500 |
| Part 2: | Plinth |
| Material: | Stone |
| Height (cm): | 300 |
| Width (cm): | 238 |
| Part 3: | Allegorical statues (inc. base) |
| Material: | Carrara marble |
| Height (cm): | 200 |
| Width (cm): | 110 |
| Depth (cm): | 70 |
| Part 4: | Queen Anne |
| Material: | Carrara marble |
| Height (cm): | 250 |
| Width (cm): | 120 |
| Depth (cm): | 100 |
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Object Condition
| Overall condition: | Poor |
| Risk assessment: | Immediate risk |
| Condition 1 of type: | Structural |
| Condition 1: | Loose elements |
| Condition 2: | Broken or missing parts |
| Condition 3: | Cracks, splits, breaks, holes |
| Condition 4: | Armature exposed |
| More details: | All lower group have faces and arms missing. Base: seriously damaged with cracks and breaks on all aspects. Queen Anne: arms and nose are missing. |
| Condition 2 of type: | Surface |
| Condition 1: | Surface spalling, crumbling |
| Condition 2: | Biological growth |
| Condition 3: | Abrasions, cracks, splits |
| Condition 4: | Bird Guano |
| Condition 5: | Corrosion, Deterioration |
| More details: | Base: heavy moss all over, particularly to the east. Queen Anne: much of the fine detail on the robes has eroded leaving only faint tracery on the dress. |
| Date of on-site inspection: | 01/08/2007 |
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History
| History: | 'Move Queen Anne? Most certainly not! Why it might some day be suggested that my statue should be removed, which I should much dislike!'
(Queen Victoria. Said at the time of her Diamond Jubilee in 1897, when it was suggested that the statue of Queen Anne should be moved from outside St. Pauls - 'A Users Guide to Public Sculpture', p34) ‘Every Londoner is familiar with the white marble group of figures in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral, but few, possibly, remember that this group of Queen Anne, surrounded by figures emblematic of England, France, Ireland, and the North American Colonies is an exact replica, made by the sculptor Richard Belt, some seventeen years ago, of the group originally put up by Bird in 1712. Bird’s work had for many years been in a disgraceful state of neglect, with the Queen’s nose chipped off, and legs and arms missing here and there. The whole composition was therefore cleared away, and an entirely new one put in its place. Mr. Augustus J.C. Hare discovered the original statuary lying in the City stoneyard eighteen months later, and coveted it for his estate at Holmhurst, near Hastings. He found that the relic belonged jointly to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Lord Mayor. These personages he eventually won over to present him with it, and the huge and heavy mass was taken down by road, with the aid of twenty-eight horses, four trucks, four trollies, and sixteen men.’ (‘Banished London’. Harmsworth Magazine. Vol 2, No. 9, April 1899. p210.) 'The statue of Queen Anne is the famous statue which formerly stood in front of St Paul's Cathedral at the head of Ludgate Hill. It is said that there was a great feeling about a Protestant sovereign (not a Stuart prince) coming to the throne, it was subscribed for by all the Protestant princes of Europe to be unveiled on the Coronation of Queen Anne. Anyway, it is the work of Bird, the most illustrious sculptor of Queen Anne's reign, celebrated for the beautiful monument of Dean Vincent in Westminster Abbey. The charlatan sculptor, Belt, went to the city council and said, 'Your Queen Anne has lost many fingers and fragments, you had better let me make another copy. I will do it very cheaply.' And Belt was allowed to make his stone copy and put it up, and the Carrara marble statue of the Queen and her four attendant ladies disappeared suddenly in the night, vanished into space leaving no trace behind. For two years I hunted Queen Anne. No one, Deans, Canons, officials, no one had any idea what had become of her. At last, my friend, Lewis Gilbertson, walking near the Vauxhall Bridge Road and seeing a curious mound in a mason's yard asked what it was. The owner said, 'There is a ladder. You can go and see'. He went and in a pit he saw the five statues. 'It is a great pity', said the mason, 'but they are to be sold in a few days to sculptors for the weight of the marble and will all be destroyed'. But an investigation was made, it was found they had never belonged to the City Council at all, and that it had had no right to give any orders concerning them. They belonged to three persons - the Bishop of London, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor. I flew to Fulham and the Bishop gave me his share, then to Lambeth and the Archbishop not only gave me his share but said, 'And I will tackle the Lord Mayor'. Then I got the secretary of the South East Company to come and see the statues and make an estimate for their removal, but he said, 'It is no use talking about it for the statue of the Queen could not go under any of our tunnels!' 'But she could lie down'. - 'No, she cannot lie down, she has too much train'. However, eventually, a plan was contrived by which the Queen leant forward and she eventually arrived at Holmhurst with four trucks, four trollies, sixteen men and twenty-eight horses. Each of the four ladies sat in a separate wagon and a strange procession they made. The Queen weighs seven tons, each of the ladies four tons. We could not move the London pedestal which was only a shell filled with rubble and rubbish. The present pedestal is an exact copy of it, with one step less and was made of the stone from our quarry. The pedestal and the removal of the statues cost £400: the Queen's railway ticket was £50. The attendant ladies are: Britannia, Ireland, the American Colonies and France - for English sovereigns did not give up their claim to French royalty until the Georges. When the statues first arrived, we had made them quite perfect and all the missing members replaced, but winters' storms have worn all the reproductions away and only the original marble remains. The Queen has now lost both her arms; fragments of them, her orb and sceptre, are in the verandah of the house. Ireland is far the best of the statues; she formerly held a harp. The American Colony statue is almost wholly undraped; a little beast of Lizard type creeps from behind her feet which rest upon the gory head of an enemy.' (Augustus Hare quoted on: http://www.umilta.net/holmhurst1.html) 'The subject of a statue of Queen Anne first appears in the Minutes of the Committee for St. Paul's Church (reprinted in The Wren Society, Volume XVI, 1939): 'It was resolved that the Fence round the Church be of cast and turned Iron-worke. And the Commissioners do Direct and Order that Mr [Richard] Jones be the person to be agreed with to doe the same, and Mr Jones, being called in, agreed to doe the said Work at the price of 6d per lb altogether, vizt.the ffence, the Gates and all Ornaments, the modell of which to be subject to such alteration as Sir Chr Wren shall direct, and the performance to such workmen as the Commissioners shall choose, the whole Work to be finished in 18 months. And, It was Ordered. That the Queene's Statue do stand within the said ffence to inclose as much of the grounds of the Church-yard as conveniently can be'. Committee Meeting Thursday, 1 February 1710/11: ''Ordered. That noe Raile be set up about the Queene's Statue untill a Modell of it is approved by the Commissioners'' p.142 Wren secured the execution by Tijou of the first railing around the statue, making it the last definitely known work by Tijou in England. John S. Bumpus. St Paul's Cathedral. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., Ltd., 1913: 15 Jan 1743, the nose was struck off by a lunatic. In 1768, the globe and sceptre were knocked off and the attendant figures lost their noses (another lunatic). Some repair done in 1829. February 1882 yet another lunatic mutilated the statue - erected to commemorate the completion of the Cathedral - marble supplied by the Queen - Queen Anne £250; England, France, Ireland and America £220 each; shield £50 = total cost £1180 - badly damaged 'by a lunatic' who thought it was an insult to his mother and remained a disgrace to the City until 1884, when the Corporation decided to replace it with a Sicilian marble replica at their own expense (estimated at £1800) because the trustees of the Cathedral (Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London and Lord Mayor) had no funds. - CLC 20 April 1887, the old statue was placed at the disposal of the trustees and was eventually re-erected at Holmhurst, Sussex' (PMSA Online Database, Central London, Manual reference: CLCOL/x4 - see also Manual reference: CLCOL215 for details of the present statue at St. Pauls) 'When it was decided to replace Bird's statue of Queen Anne, the contract was given to Messrs. Mowlem and Sons who employed Richard Belt for the work. After preparing the model, he apparently asked to be released from the employment and the artistic work was carried out by Monsieur Louis Auguste Malempre [CLC 24 March 1886]. It was unveiled by the Lord Mayor on 15 Dec 1886 A letter from Richard Belt requesting that his name might be placed upon the replica was not complied with for the City Lands Committee were informed by Messrs Mowlem that the old statue was made good with plaster as a model for the new figures by men under Belt's direction, but that Belt did not personally execute any of the work on the marble replica. His request was turned down. See Co. Co. Minutes and Reports 4 December 1884 and 24 March 1887 and the City Lands Committee Minutes (subject 'Queen Anne's Statue) Excess expenditure of £116.8- was allowed.' (See PMSA Online Database, Central London: CLCOL215) Inscription on current statue at St. Pauls Cathedral: On the South side of the pedestal: The Original STATUE was erected on this spot in the year 1712 to commemorate the completion of SAINT PAUL'S CATHEDRAL FRANCIS BIRD Sculptor. On cartouche: HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE On North side of the pedestal: This Replica of the Statue of QUEEN ANNE was erected at the expense of The CORPORATION of LONDON In the Year 1886 The Rt. Hon./SIR REGINALD HANSON M.A.F.S.A. Lord Mayor Wm. BRAHAM Esq. Chairman of the City Lands Committee. (See PMSA Online Database, Central London: CLCOL215) Augustus Hare was born in the Villa Strozzi, Rome in 1834. The King of Sweden invested him with the Order of St. Olaf. He wrote a six volume book, 'The Story of My Life' and a range of guidebooks covering Italy, France, Spain, Holland and Russia, Durham, Shropshire and Sussex (1894). He took great swathes of content from other authors and was sued for plagiarism. He lived at Holmhurst for twelve years before his death in 1903. ('People of Hidden Sussex') Bird had been responsible for the figurative sculpture on St. Paul's since the death of his master, Caius Gabriel Cibber, in 1700. He carved 'The Conversion of St. Paul' and the relief, 'St. Paul preaching to the Bereans over the west door. He also produced another statue of Queen Anne in the market place of Kingston upon Thames. The statue was unveiled for the great Thanksgiving Service for the Peace of Utrecht on 7 July 1713. The Queen was unable to attend due to illness. The three blocks of marble for the statue came from Scotland Yard. The replica was unveiled outside St. Pauls on 15 December 1886 by the Lord Mayor. |
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References
| Source 1 : | |
| Title: | 'Public Sculpture of the City of London' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Ward-Jackson, Philip. |
| Page: | 374-381 |
| Publisher: | Liverpool University Press |
| Source 2 : | |
| Title: | 'People of Hidden Sussex' |
| Type: | Book |
| Author: | Swinfen, Warden & Arscott, David. |
| Page: | 27 |
| Publisher: | BBC Radio Sussex. Brighton. |
| Source 3 : | |
| Title: | Harmsworth Monthly Pictorial Magazine |
| Article: | 9 |
| Type: | Journal |
| Author: | Harper, Charles G. |
| Page: | 210 |
| Volume: | 2 |
| Publisher: | The Illustrated London News. London. |
Further information: | |
| #http://www.umilta.net/holmhurst1.html# | |
| #http://pmsa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/CL/CLCOL-x4.htm# | |
| Date accessed: | 10/08/2007 |
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Photographs
Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
 Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |  Author: Anthony McIntosh Copyright: Creative Commons |
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