Coade’s Gallery Façade
These hunky half-men (called ‘terms’) are holding up the porch of Schomberg House, 80-82 Pall Mall, London. They and the plaque symbolising Painting, above, are Coade stone, but were painted fairly recently – hence the creamy colour. The Polygraphic Society, who were copiers of pictures, added the porch around 1791.
This is the trade card, or ‘card of direction’ for the Coade manufactory. Designed by John Bacon, it shows ‘the Attempts of Time to destroy Sculpture and Architecture, defeated by the Vitrifying Aid of Fire.’ Fire is the torch bearer, who has so confounded Time, he drops his sickle. Sculpture and Architecture are saved! (At least if you buy Coade stone, is the clear message.) Behind the group is one of the kilns at the manufactory, demonstrating the process.
The quote above is from this print of the façade of Coade’s Gallery, demolished in 1908. Here the previous images are joined. To decorate the gallery, the company created their trade card in three dimensions, supported by terms on pedestals eleven feet high. The Schomberg terms were made from the same moulds. Standing before them in Pall Mall, I am staggered to imagine the life-sized dramatic scene they supported. It was audacious, fabulous, and truly did conquer Time, lasting over 100 years. It was the march of progress that destroyed the building.