The process of casting made possible the mass consumption of small scale sculpture and broadcast sculptors’ reputations, but the success of this kind of promotion was restricted by size. Large scale marble works presented different problems. Works were often commissioned on the strength of the customer’s approval of the maquette, so clients who bought sculpture were probably sufficiently experienced to make the imaginative leap between reductions and full scale works. However, such conditions presumed the presence of the patron in the studio. In cases where this was impossible, drawings could act as intermediaries.

In the first half of the 19th century it proved not only more educational for sculptors to work in Rome, the home of antiquity, but also more lucrative, as Rome was the city in Europe which was most likely to attract members of the sculpture-buying classes. Although British sculptors flourished and prospered in Rome, their location there presented something of a problem for prospective British patrons. In 1844 Prince Albert asked the sculptor John Gibson to send designs by English sculptors working in Rome for marble statues to be placed in the recently acquired Osborne House. Among the artists whose work Gibson represented was his ex-student William Theed (the Younger).

As a result of Gibson’s recommendation in 1848, Theed returned to London to work in the royal palaces. Before leaving Rome, Theed made a statue of Narcissus, (the sculpture is signed ‘W Theed/Romae 1848’). This languid standing male nude belongs to a tradition informed by Polykletios’ ‘Diadumenos’ and other works by the Antique sculptor, notably ‘The Westmacott Youth’, which were widely known in Europe at this time. Three versions of this sculpture are known; one, in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, another in the gardens at Anglesey Abbey, the third is at Temple Newsam House, Leeds. Leeds City Art Galleries own a suite of drawings of sculpture by English sculptors working in Rome at this time, drawn by Paolo Guglielmi, an Italian engraver. Among these are two drawings for statues in the Leeds Collections, one of which is Theed’s ‘Narcissus’. The relationship between the drawings and the sculptures remains unclear. Each drawing bears the title of the sculpture, the artist’s name and in all but one case, the size and the price of each work. Theed’s ‘Narcissus’ bears the inscription:

height 4” 2 ½ in Narcissus at the Fountain
Price £200 Wm” Theed Sculptor P Guglielmi

It seems likely with the inclusion of such information that the drawings, like the designs sent by John Gibson to Prince Albert (they may even be the designs sent by Gibson), were advance publicity intended to solicit commissions for copies. The other drawings in the suite are: ‘Hindoo Girl: Lala Rookh’ after a sculpture by Henry Timbrell, ‘Glycera’, 1848, ‘Nymph of Diana Returning from the Chase’ 1835 and ‘Nymph Removing a Thorn From a Greyhound’s Foot 1850, all by Richard James Wyatt. (This last sculpture was left unfinished in Wyatt’s studio at the time of his death and is said to have been completed by John Gibson). The sculpture is now at Temple Newsam House, Leeds.

It was not only artists working abroad who sought to promote their work through repetition. Francis Chantrey (1781-1841), who worked for the majority of his life in England and set foot in Rome only briefly as a tourist and to buy Carrara marble, was probably the most successful portrait sculptor of his generation. One of Chantrey’s most important pieces was his bust of the writer Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Chantrey’s first bust of Walter Scott was executed in 1820, and it is significant that Chantrey asked the writer to sit for his bust rather than, as is more usual, that the subject commission the work. He presented the finished work to Scott for his library on the condition that Scott would sit for another bust for Chantrey to keep in his studio. Chantrey made two copies of this bust, one for the Duke of Wellington and another for Sir Robert Peel. This bust was one of Chantrey’s best sellers as it was considered a very respectable addition to many an institutional and private library. Several copies were made by his studio which was one of the largest and busiest in Victorian England.

Chantrey’s bust of Scott was also produced in Parian. Parian is a biscuit-fired porcelain derivative which was developed in the mid-19th century. The Derby Factory at first used and refined a bone-china-based material for making reductions of statuary in the manner of the sèvres factory in France. The smooth matt quality of the unglazed ware imitated the surface appearance and feel of the marble but the surface absorbed dirt and was almost impossible to clean. The medium was further refined by Thomas Battam and T. S. Garrett at the Copeland Factory into a material which successfully imitated the substance from which it derives its name. By the early 19th century a number of English potteries were using this material and retailing reductions of sculpture both ancient and contemporary. Chantrey’s bust of Walter Scott was produced by a large number of factories including Minton, Copeland, Wedgewood, Worcester, Robinson and Leadbeater and Keys and Mountford.