- John Thomas (sculptor)
John Thomas (1813 - 1862) was a British sculptor who worked on
Buckingham Palace and thePalace of Westminster .John Thomas was born in
Chalford Gloucester .Apprenticed to a stonemason after being left an orphan, he later went to Birmingham where his elder brother
William Thomas (architect) was an architect. He was noticed byCharles Barry who immediately employed John Thomas as a stone and wood carver on Birmingham Grammar School (now demolished), his first collaboration withAugustus Welby Northmore Pugin .Barry later appointed him the Supervising Carver on the
Palace of Westminster inLondon , on which he is responsible for all the figures of English kings and queens. His work 'Charity' was shown at theGreat Exhibition of 1851 , and then adapted to form a memorial in Christ Church,Chalford , to his brother Richard who died in 1852.His statue of
Godiva is held inMaidstone Museum & Art Gallery .His final work was the colossal statue of
William Shakespeare displayed at the1862 International Exhibition . A dispute over its placement hastened his death in April 1862, and he was buried inKensal Green Cemetery , London. His massive (30 ft. high and convert|40|ft|m|abbr=on. in diameter)majolica fountain, also on display at the 1862 exhibition, was placed outside theV&A Museum of Childhood until it was demolished in 1926.He was also responsible for the Atlas Fountain at
Castle Howard .References
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/sculpt/thomasjn.htm
http://glasgowsculpture.com/pg_biography.php?sub=thomas_j
http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/thomas/index.html
http://www.artfact.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?lotCode=2ibHJ49A
http://christchurchchalford.org/craftsmanship.html
http://www.pats-towerhamlets.ch/museums/childhood.htm
http://www.castlehoward.co.uk/metadot/index.pl?iid=3684&isa=Category
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