Crystal Palace Stereoview Sale #6

[tulse hill terry]

‘The Italian Court’

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1860s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0112d7d



‘Stereoscopic Illustrations of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The Weepers, by J. G. Lough’. This is a rare Negretti view with a bilingual (English/French) label to back of mount.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Graham_Lough

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f01131d1



‘Crystal Palace Grounds’

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fine-Hand-Tinted- ... 45f011341f



‘Crystal Palace. 46. General view of the Palace, Cascades and Lower Fountains’

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crystal-Palace-Vi ... 45f0113857



‘Crystal Palace. 101. Statues in the Greek and Roman Sculpture Court’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Negretti-Crystal- ... 45f0113a3d



‘Crystal Palace. 158. Sculptures in the Roman Court’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0113c76



Negretti and Zambra view with attached yellow label (butterfly cornerpieces), titled ‘Crystal Palace. 22. Exterior of the Palace from the Grand Terrace’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Negretti-Crystal- ... 45f0113e8f



Negretti and Zambra hand-tinted view with attached yellow label (butterfly cornerpieces), titled ‘Crystal Palace. 9. The Alhambra Court. The façade towards the Nave, with the entrance to the Court of Lions’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Negretti-Crystal- ... 45f01140a0



Negretti and Zambra view with attached yellow label (butterfly cornerpieces), titled ‘Crystal Palace. 127. The Elizabethan Court, viewed from the Nave. On either side of the entrance are the bronze figures from the Tartarughe Fountain in Rome’. Dated London July 1866.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Negretti-Crystal- ... 45f011431f



From the series of 45 views produced by T.R. Williams for the London Stereoscopic Company, this view dates from 1856/7. This is #3, The Court of Lions, and has a descriptive text printed on the back.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T-R-Williams-Crys ... 45f0114517



One of the earliest views produced of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. It dates from 1855/6. Handwritten title ‘The Birmingham Court’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Early-1850s-Cryst ... 45f0114664



‘Crystal Palace Sculpture Gallery’ series titled ‘233. Ancient Briton, by G.G. Adams’. It has the attached yellow label with a bamboo border.

By George Gammon Adams, for the Sculpture competition in 1844 for the New Houses of Parliament.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crystal-Palace-Vi ... 45f01148ef



Crystal Palace Sculpture Gallery’ series titled ‘240. Admiral. Duquesne, by Antoine Laurent Dantan'. Taken outside the Stationary Court.


Statue unveiled Dieppe 22 September 1844. Source: http://huguenotsinfo.free.fr/memoire/li ... quesne.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Duquesne

It has the attached yellow label with a bamboo border.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crystal-Palace-Vi ... 45f0114b1e



Crystal Palace. View of the statue of Mars and Venus by Antonio Canova. Marble version in Buckingham Palace in Central Transept



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Mid-1850s-Crystal ... 45f0114cff



‘Crystal Palace. 38. The Screen of the Kings and Queens of England’.



Robert Stephenson by Carlo Marochetti from Euston Station

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0114f61



Negretti and Zambra view with attached yellow label (butterfly cornerpieces), titled ‘Crystal Palace. 35. Court of Ancient Monuments’



Most visible is the Wakeman Cenotaph [missing the figure of a corpse] from Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire.

http://www2.glos.ac.uk/bgas/tbgas/v103/bg103141.pdf

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Negretti-Crystal- ... 45f0115165



1850s Crystal Palace view with handwritten title ‘English Medieval Court’. London Stereoscopic, Broadway, New York, blindstamp.

Tomb of Black Prince 1380, from Canterbury Cathedral in foreground.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0115335



‘Crystal Palace. 17. Avenue, in front of Fine Art Courts, on the north-east side’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0115558



1860s Crystal Palace view with handwritten title ‘The Court of Monuments of Christian Art’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crystal-Palace-Vi ... 45f013e45a



1870s Crystal Palace view with handwritten title ‘North Nave. Tropical End’. Dated London, July 16, 1874’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1870s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f013e60b



View of the grounds at Crystal Palace with the water tower and main buildings in the distance.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Unusual-View-of-G ... 45f013e790



‘148. The Greek and Roman Sculpture Court’. Egyptian Court behind.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1860s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0148898



1850s Negretti and Zambra Crystal Palace view with printed titled ‘135. The Greek Court’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... ct0328.jpg



‘Stereoscopic Illustrations of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. Statue in the French and Italian Sculpture Gallery’.



"Psyche" by Sir Richard Westmacott, (1775-1856) marble version at Woburn Abbey. This was taken in the south transept, and would now have to dodge the buses turning around!



Early view of the Byzantine Court by Negretti & Zambra, London Stereoscopic company retailers blind stamp.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0148d92



1850s untitled view of the Egyptian Court at the Crystal Palace.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0148f80



ANOTHER view of the Byzantine Court

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Early-Stere ... 45f01490c2



‘No 19. Gallery of Greek Sculpture’. London Stereoscopic Company Blind stamp of photographer Thomas Richard Williams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Richard_Williams

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T-R-Williams-Crys ... 45f0149204



‘No 25. English Medieval Court’ London Stereoscopic Company

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/T-R-Williams-Crys ... 45f014939a



1850s view of a statue gallery, looking towards the Egyptian Court, in the Crystal Palace.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f014969d



Entrance to Elizabethan Court, with facade of the Renaissance Court behind.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f014984e



Narcissus by William Theed, South transept, south facade of Pompeian Court behind. another one that would now be dodging the buses.



Marble versions at Anglesey Abbey, Lode, Cambridgeshire,a nd Osborne House I believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Theed



"First Whisper of Love" 1846 by William Calder Marshall, south transept.
Royal Dublin Society , Dublin, Leinster, Ireland



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calder_Marshall



Mediaeval Court interior, looking north.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1860s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0149cff



ANOTHER view of the Italian Court interior looking north.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1860s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f0149fd8



1850s Negretti and Zambra view with printed title ‘Crystal Palace. 1. The Nave’.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Stereoview- ... 45f014a350



Statue of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing by Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel just visible to the right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Frie ... _Rietschel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthold_Ephraim_Lessing



ANOTHER untitled 1870s view of the Screen of the Kings and Queens of England at the Crystal Palace. Dated London, July 16 1874.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Crystal-Palace-Sc ... 45f014a706



"Musidora" by John Thomas, outside his "Court of Musical Instruments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_(sculptor)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1850s-Crystal-Pal ... 45f014a8e0

The whole set of listings on one page:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/jennyandray-uk/m ... op=1&_sc=1

[MartinH]

Hello Terry, I always enjoy reading your posts and I too have some stereo slides of the palace which I will download- once I work out how to do it. What amazes is me is the sheer scale of replicating these statues from the originals, I assume, using plaster casts. Some statues are very intricate and it must take multiple efforts to form just one statue. Are there any photos of this procedure? Also permission must have been sought from the owners of these statues and screens etc, so it must have been quite a lengthy process. One other question. I remember reading a book by, I think, Pat Beaver on the Palace and there was a photo of a gigantic female head being sculptured. I do not recall seeing this head on any slides of the Palace or any mention of it. Any ideas? Thanks again.

[tulse hill terry]

You're welcome.

I too have some stereo slides of the palace which I will download- once I work out how to do it.

Well you'd need to scan them or take photographs with a digital camera, then upload them to a photo hosting site, if you don't have your own server, and add them to the relavant points in your post.

What amazes is me is the sheer scale of replicating these statues from the originals, I assume, using plaster casts. Some statues are very intricate and it must take multiple efforts to form just one statue. Are there any photos of this procedure?

They say that traditional mould making takes over 25 years to master. There are some Delamotte pictures of the larger pieces being assembled, along with the courts themselves.

I have been thinking of creating a thread for the sculpture, where they would make more sense, though I'm still not sure it would be of interest.

I have read somewhere of the use of gelatine moulds which are flexible, and would reduce the problem of 'undercutting, where a detail is too awkwardly shaped to come free of the mould. With a mould made of a solid material like plaster, you would cast a small part, sand the sides, and then cast the next area till you had covered the whole object, then create another outer shell, called the "mother mould" made up of larger pieces to hold the smaller ones together, there is an example in the V&A cast court, but I think it maybe in the one closed to the public at the moment.

Here's a link: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/sculpture/c ... /mould.htm

Also permission must have been sought from the owners of these statues and screens etc, so it must have been quite a lengthy process.

Crystal Palace Guide 1854:

Shortly after the erection of the first column, Messrs. Owen Jones and Digby Wyatt were charged with a mission to the continent, in order to procure examples of the principal works of art in Europe. They were fortified by Lord Malmesbury, then Secretary of State, with letters to the several ambassadors on their route, expressing the sympathy of the Government in the object of their travels, and backed by the liberal purse of the Company, who required, for themselves, only that the collection should prove worthy of the nation for which they were the caterers.

The travellers first of all visited Paris, and received the most cordial co-operation of the Government, and of the authorities at the Museum of the Louvre, and the Ecole des beaux Arts. The permission to obtain casts of any objects, which could with safety be taken, was at once accorded them. From Paris they proceeded to Italy, and thence to Germany, in both which countries they experienced, generally, a ready and generous compliance with their wishes. At Munich they received especial attention, and were most kindly assisted by the British Ambassador, and the architect Baron von Klenze, through whose instrumentality and influence King Louis permitted casts of the most choice objects in the Glyptothek for the first time to be taken.

The chief exceptions to the general courtesy were at Rome, Padua, and Vienna. At the first-named city every arrangement had been made for procuring casts of the great Obelisk of the Lateran, the celebrated antique equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitol, the beautiful monuments by Andrea Sansovino in the church of S. M. del Popolo, the interesting bas-reliefs from the arch of Titus, and other works, when an order from the Papal Government forbade the copies to be taken : and accordingly, for the present, our collection, as regards these valuable subjects, is incomplete.

At Padua contracts had been made for procuring that masterpiece of Renaissance art, the candledrum of Riccio, the entire series of bronzes by Donatello, and several other important works in the Church of St. Anthony; but, in spite of numerous appeals, aided by the influences of Cardinal Wiseman, the capitular authorities refused their consent.

At Vienna agreements had been entered into for procuring a most important series of monuments from the Church of St. Stephen, in that city; including a celebrated stone pulpit, and the monument of Frederic III. A contract had also been made for obtaining a cast of the grand bronze statue of Victory, at Brescia; but although the influence of Lord Malmesbury and Lord Westmoreland (our ambassador at Vienna) was most actively exerted, permission was absolutely refused by the Austrian authorities in Lombardy, as well as in Vienna itself. Thus much it is necessary to state in order to justify the directors of the Crystal Palace in the eyes of the world for omissions in their collection which hitherto they have not had to power to make good. They are not without hope, however, that the mere announcement of these deficiencies will be sufficient to induce the several governments to take a kindly view of the requests that have been made to them, and to participate in the satisfaction that follows every endeavour to advance human enjoyment.

In England, wherever application had been made, permission – with one exception – has been immediately granted by the authorities, whether ecclesiastical or civil, to take casts of any monuments required. The one interesting exception deserves a special record. The church wardens of Beverly Minster, Yorkshire, enjoy the privilege of being able to refuse a cast of the celebrated Percy shrine, the most complete example of purely English art in our country; and in spite of the protestations of the Archbishop of York, the Duke of Northumberland, Archdeacon Wilberforce, Sir Charles Barry, and others, half the churchwardens in question insist, to this hour, upon their right to have their enjoyment without molestation. The visitors to the Crystal Palace cannot therefore, as yet, see the Percy shrine.

Any hesitation must have been caused by two concerns. Sculpture, which seems to have developed slower than painting, was still influenced by the Neo-classical. As Italy, and especially Rome was the source for newly discovered and collected statuary, and these pieces were considered so valuable that they were owned by Kings, aristocracy, and the Vatican. Artists would have to travel to Rome to see and study these works, or only see them in engravings, or copies of copies, where innacuracy would creep in. The highest art prize in France was the Prix de Rome, which enabled the winner to travel to Rome to study.

Certainly mediaeval tombs like the Percy Shrine at Beverly Minster, could have suffered damage and any trace of the original colouring.

One other question. I remember reading a book by, I think, Pat Beaver on the Palace and there was a photo of a gigantic female head being sculptured. I do not recall seeing this head on any slides of the Palace or any mention of it. Any ideas?

The directors of the Crystal Palace Company complained that too many casts had been bought and for too high a price, so perhaps it was just as well they couldn't bring back everything they wanted.



You must mean the colossal head from the figure of Bavaria by the German sculptor Ludwig Schwanthaler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Mic ... hwanthaler

The above image by Delamotte and also posted in the "Walk through the nave" thread."



In situ



The lower half of the bronze version.

A link to a visit to the inside of the bronze version.

http://www.toytowngermany.com/lofi/inde ... 48501.html

This cast was delivered before the building was finished. I haven't found an image already online, and will have to scan an image from the Chup Friemart reprint, though the book was taken from some very faded prints.

I only recently realised that it was placed on a very high plinth in the English and German Sculpture Court, level with the first floor, [very precarious] and have never seen it in later photographs.

As you can see a huge subject!

[MartinH]

Thank you Terry for a swift, comprehensive, and fascinating reply.