Eleanor Coade & fired artificial stone 1650-1851

Thesis

Fired artificial stone (stoneware used in statuary and architecture) was a key enabler of sculptural display and external ornamentation in the long eighteenth century. From the 1720s, its production enabled the commodification of fine art, expressions of self-fashioning, and the dissemination and homogenization of architectural taste. For contemporaries, fired artificial stone became associated exclusively with Eleanor Coade (1733-1821) and her Lambeth manufactory. Coade was an exceptional entrepreneur and brand pioneer, her eponymous stone achieving international renown for its durability, which allowed it to be positioned as superior to natural stone. Although intrinsically astylar, Coade stone was especially associated with neoclassicism, bringing the style out from aristocratic settings into everyday townscapes. This study dispels various myths that have accrued to Eleanor Coade and her formulation. It will be demonstrated that she benefited from a century of prior artisanal development. Her predecessors are examined in detail: John Dwight, Aaron Mutchell, Richard Holt, Batty Langley, George Davy and Daniel Pincot. Evidence of Davy’s and Pincot’s supply to customers like the Duke of Northumberland, the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Henry Hoare of Stourhead and Horace Walpole indicate the sophistication the sector had reached before Coade’s involvement. New collaborative molecular spectroscopy analyses prompted by this research reveal that it was Daniel Pincot, not Coade, who perfected the formulation. Coade’s triumph was to make it a commercial success when she took over Pincot’s manufactory c.1770. Notwithstanding Alison Kelly’s self-published book 'Mrs Coade’s stone' (1990), Eleanor Coade has been largely ignored by mainstream scholarship, despite her value as a case study of exceptional entrepreneurship, made more remarkable by her gender. This study seeks to correct this bias, by placing Coade for the first time in her full historical context, both geographically and socially. Doing so provides some important correctives, and does not diminish her achievements.

Authors: Stanford, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xoxkq4e21
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: ceramics (stoneware); sculpture; 18th-century London; architectural decoration; entrepreneurship; Georgian women in business
• Subjects: Architecture--Great Britain--History--18th century; Businesswomen; Collectors and collecting; London (England)--History--18th century; Branding (Marketing); Decoration and ornament, Architectural; Ceramics in architecture; Business history