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• THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY BULLETIN VOL. IX APRIL, 1925 No. 1 BROADWAY, LOOKING SOUTH FROM BARCLAY STREET, ABOUT 1885 Astor House and St. Paul's Church on the right. NEW YORK: 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AND ISSUED TO MEMBERS THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST (Erected by the Society 1908) Wings to be erected on the 76th and 77th Street corners OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY For Three Years, ending 1926 PRESIDENT FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY JOHN ABEEL WEEKES ARCHER MILTON HUNTINGTON FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY WALTER LISPENARD SUYDAM THOMAS T. SHERMAN SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT RECORDING SECRETARY J. ARCHIBALD MURRAY WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT TREASURER ARTHUR H. MASTEN R. HORACE GALLATIN FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT LIBRARIAN FRANCIS ROBERT SCHELL ALEXANDER J. WALL Robert H. Kelby, Librarian Emeritus WAX PORTRAITURE Concerning the art of wax portraiture, considerable will be found in print relating to the work of foreign artists and subjects in the collections of wax works in various institutions and private collections abroad, but only a beginning has been made in bringing out the wax portraiture done in America or the work of American sculptors in wax. The New York Historical Society has some interesting examples of wax portraits which form the basis of this article. In our Egyp tian collection we have four wax figures of the Sons of Horus repre sented with mummiform bodies and heads of a jackal, baboon, falcon and man. These figures date from XXI-XXII Dynasties (1909-745 B.C.) and are funerary gods whose function was to guard the viscera of the dead. They were placed with the mummi fied viscera in the body cavity. They are crudely made by hand, roughly carved with a knife. Two other wax figures, similar in character and date, are also in the collection of Egyptian antiquities. An earlier mention of Egyptian wax figures is made of over a dozen of Queen Nefern's shawabti figures of clay or wax wrapped in band ages and placed in a little coffin which dates back to XI Dynasty or about 3000 B.C.1 From these early evidences of the art of wax work we come to the portrait busts of the Greeks and Romans, among whom we find principally mentioned Lysistratus, a Greek sculptor who lived in Alexander the Great's time and executed small busts in colored wax, recorded as the first instance of the process of coloring.2 Roman sculptors modelled in wax from life and their busts were carried in patrician funerals at the head of the procession. According to Pliny it was the custom of noble families to keep busts in colored wax of their departed ancestors in their houses, while in humbler dwellings waxen images of the household gods were found. Still later we find many noted sculptors modelled in wax, such as Michael Angelo, Benvenuto Cellini, Leone Leoni, Antoine, Benoist, 1 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian Expedition, 1923—1924, p. 12. 2 Kendall's Jewelled Waxes and others, "The Connoisseur," Vol. 8, pp. 133-9. 3 4 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY etc. In fact it was a crowded profession in the 16th Century when we read in a work published in 1550 that "it would take too long to enumerate all the artists who model wax portraits, for nowadays there is scarcely a jeweller who does not occupy himself with such work."3 In England the custom of carrying wax effigies of the departed in funeral processions was practiced in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Some of these life-size models are still preserved in Westminster Abbey, where may be seen the figures of Queen Elizabeth, Oliver Cromwell, Charles I, Duchess of Buckingham, and Lord Chatham. It is said of the Wallace Collection of wax portraits of historical personages in Hertford House, London, England, that it is a matter of regret that none of them bear the artist's signature.4 This is essentially so in American wax portraiture and it is only from family tradition and comparison coupled with collateral documents that the names of the artists of our most interesting wax portraits are known. "The New York Gazette" of December 13 to 21, 1731, contains the following early mention of a wax worker: "Martha Gazley, late from Great Britain, now in the City of New York, Makes and Teacheth the following curious Works, viz Artificial Fruit and Flowers, and other Wax-Work, Nuns-Work, Philligree and Pencil Work upon Muslin, all sorts of Needle-Work, and Raising of Paste, as also to Paint upon Glass, and Transparant for Sconces, with other works. If any young Gentlewomen, or others, are inclined to learn any or all the above-mentioned curious Works, they may be carefully taught and instructed in the same by said Martha Gazley at present at the Widdow Butlers, near the Queenshead Tavern in William Street, not far from Captain An thony Rutgers." On August 28, 1749, "The New York Gazette" announced: "This is to acquaint the Curious, That the Effigies of the Royal Family of England, and the Empress Queen of Hungaria and Bohemia, and others to the Number of fourteen Figures, in Wax, (the Particulars of which are too numerous to be inserted here) are to be seen from 7 in the Morning to 6 in the Evening. Price One 3 Farrer's "Lady de Gex's Collection of Reliefs in Colored Wax," quoting Vasari on Technique, etc. "The Connoisseur," Vol. 23, pp. 225-232, 1909. 4 Kendall's "Sir Walter Gibbey's Collection," "The Connoisseur," Vol. 7, p. 135. QUARTERLYBULLETIN 5 Shilling and Six Pence each Person; none to be admitted without paying. Our Time in this Town will be but short." On October 9, 1749, this same exhibition was announced as a benefit for the "poor debtors now under confinement in the Prison of New York." PATIENCE WRIGHT The next mention we have of a wax works exhibition is that of the celebrated Mrs. Patience Wright when on June 10, 1771, "The New York Gazette" announced that on June 3rd, a fire was dis covered in the house of Mrs. Wright, the ingenious Artist in Wax Work, and Proprietor of the Figures so nearly resembling the Life, which have for some time past been exhibited in this City to general satisfaction. Most of the wax work was destroyed together with some new pieces which Mrs- Wells (sister of Mrs. Wright) had lately brought from Charlestown. On August 5th following, it was announced that her work had been restored and new pieces added. Mrs. Wright, or Patience Lovell, was born in 1725 in Borden- town, N. J., and married March 20, 1748, Joseph Wright, who died in 1769, leaving her with three children. For better support she began to model in wax, in which work she acquired a great reputa tion, and after the above announcements in 1771 she went to London to seek a wider field for her work.5 Her sailing was an nounced in the "New York Journal or General Advertiser," January 30, 1772, as follows: "The Snow Mercury Packet ... is ready to sail for London. "Among the Passengers, is the ingenious Mrs. Wright, whose Skill in taking Likenesses, expressing the Passions, and many curious Devices in Wax Work, has deservedly recommended her to public Notice, especially among Persons of Distinction, from many of whom we hear she carried Letters to their Friends in England." There she met with great success, modelling in wax the portraits of the celebrities of England, including King George III and Queen Charlotte, with whom she was on intimate terms. Of her work preserved in America, there is the yellow wax medal lion of Benjamin Franklin made in London which Franklin gave to 6 Dunlap's "History ... of the Arts of Design," 1918, Vol. 2, pp. 150-156. 6 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY Mary Hewson, of London, with whom he boarded while there and from which the Wedgwood basaltic medallion of the same size was made. It is now owned by a descendant of Mrs. Hewson, Mr. J. S. Bradford, of West Philadelphia, and is reproduced in Hart's article on Patience Wright. A similar wax, illustrated in this article, is owned by Mr. Richard T. H. Halsey. This is yellow in color and like all duplicate wax likenesses differs from the Bradford wax in various details. It is three by two inches mounted on glass which has a black background. Neither of these medallions is signed. The most important piece of work done by Patience Wright which We know of today in America is her wax bust medallion of George Washington, modelled in high relief of which two copies are known; one in the possession of Dr. Richard H. Harte, of Phil adelphia, and the other owned by Mrs. J. West Roosevelt, of New York, They are both of white wax, which time has yellowed some what, and vary but slightly. A third wax bust of George Wash ington, in a broken condition, is recorded as being in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, but a search for it failed to locate it at the time of the writing of this article, so that we cannot state whether it is Patience Wright's work or the Bowen type hereafter described. It may be the one referred to as being in the possession of Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadelphia.6 From the family tradition of both the Harte and Roosevelt wax portraits of George Washington we have the knowledge that they were made by Patience Wright, although neither is signed.