A WILLIAM IV MARBLE NEO-CLASSICAL MEMORIAL PLAQUE

A WILLIAM IV MARBLE NEO-CLASSICAL MEMORIAL PLAQUE

BY WILLIAM OSMOND (1793-1875), SALISBURY, DATED '1833'

carved with a classical maiden kneeling beside and urn on a plinth above the inscription 'To the Memory of MATILDA, Wife of George Mill. Gent. who was suddenly removed from her afflicted Husband & sorrowing family within a month of her Marriage on the 24th of July 1833, Aged 26 Years.'

98 x 73cm

Provenance

Holy Trinity, Shaftesbury (made redundant in 1977 and deconsecrated in 2010).

Catalogue Note

William Osmond (1793-1875), sculptor and mason, was appointed Mason to Salisbury Cathedral in about 1818 at the age of 27, employing twelve men and one boy; his first undertaking in the following two years was to make two new pinnacles for the cathedral's tower. In 1843 he made "columns and capitals" for the south walk within the cloisters, continuing for decades to restore the cathedral itself, as well as supplying monuments for the cathedral and other churches. He was a close friend of the influential Gothic revival architect A.W.N. Pugin, adopting the latter’s Gothic style. He died on 10 July 1875 at home at 113 Exeter Street, Salisbury, and is buried in the Cloister Green of Salisbury Cathedral, where there is a memorial sculpted by his son. It has been suggested that the Osmonds are descended from Bishop Osmond (whose remains are interred in Salisbury Cathedral) who came over with William the Conqueror and was made a Saint.

Literature

See Rupert Gunnis, Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851, page 285.