Object Description
A Rare Bronze Bust of King George IV, Retailed by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell c.1821
Literature
Bronze busts of this model are discussed by Christopher Hartop in Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell and Bridge 1797-1843 p.90, fig.79
For Chantrey’s but of George IV, the source for this piece, see The Chantrey Ledger’, The Walpole Society, vol. LVI, 1991/1992, p. 165-167
A fine portrait likeness of King George IV, c.1821, bust length in profile to the right on a waisted integral bronze socle and perched atop a fluted pedestal, flanked by the royal coat of arms and lion and unicorn supporters. Beneath the arms is a further stepped pedestal inscribed
‘Georgius IV D. G. Britt. Rex Pater Patriae’
(George IV, King of Britain and father of the nation)
Signed to the base of the lowest plinth and to the reverse of the truncation with the following inscription:
‘Rundell Bridge et Rundell Aurifices Regis Londini’
This fine piece is one of a small number of surviving bronzes retailed by Rundell, Bridge and Rundell, Royal goldsmiths and silversmiths and one of the most important luxury retailers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In his monograph on the firm, Royal Goldsmiths: The Art of Rundell and Bridge 1797-1843, Christopher Hartop stated:
‘Like some ormolu works, a small number of works in bronze are identifiable as coming from Rundell’s thanks to their signatures, such as the small busts of George IV after Sir Francis Chantrey’s model which were possibly produced in Chantrey’s own workshop’.
In his British bronze sculpture founders and plaster figure makers, 1800-1980, Dr. Jacob Simon suggests that the idea that Chantrey’s own workshop produced the Rundell’s pieces ‘seems unlikely’ but instead points to ‘Peter Sarti, figure maker and moulder, claimed in his evidence to a Select Committee on the British Museum in 1835 to have worked on models for Rundell & Bridge’.
The source for the present bust is said to be the work of Sir Francis Chantrey, specifically a bust first produced in 1821 and surviving in various incarnations as the sculptor reproduced it on multiple occasions. The reason for the image’s popularity is that it quickly became accepted as the “official” image of the King and it was therefore in high demand. Examples of this bust survive today in the Royal Collection
https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/6/collection/2136/george-iv-1762-1830
in Eton College, and in the Brighton Pavilion amongst other collections. There is also a very similar image, once given to Chantrey but now to Nollekens, in the British Museum which was badly damaged by fire
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_OA-10538
It should be noted, however, that although the debt of the present piece to these marble sculptures is clear, the Rundell’s version also features classical armour under the drapery, something which is not seen in the Nollekens or Chantrey examples. It is therefore likely that the present piece was a new design created in-house at Rundell’s, perhaps by the aforementioned Peter Sarti, rather than a simple reduction of a known prototype, making it all the more interesting.