Design for sculpture by Joseph Nollekens, 1770s-1780s.

Design, inscribed with measurements, a scale and a price, depicting a flag or colour raised at a diagonal angle, anchor, cannon, and naval equipment.

'Admiral James Sayer, Vice Admiral of the White, saw active service in both East and West Indies, 1739-63, and died in 1776 aged 56. His monument in St. Paul's Church, Deptford, is not a standing monument but smaller, of the wall type, and it corresponds to the V&A Museum drawing (E.4429-1920).

There exists another drawing for a naval monument, in grander style than no.33, showing a full-length portrait set before a flag and trophy (V&A Museum, E.4433-1920), which may or may not have been intended for that to Admiral Sayer. The flag motif is derived either from Roubiliac's Warren monument, now partly dismantled, or from Wilton's monument to General Wolfe (1772), both of which were in Westminster Abbey and would have been well known to Nollekens.

From: Kenworthy-Browne, John. Catalogue of Nollekens Drawings. The Property of Dr Arthur Sackler (unpublished typescript), no.33 (80.6.213).

Historical significance: 'Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815, and as the subject of the biography Nollekens and his Times (1828) by J.T. Smith. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac). Flaxman praised Nollekens as the only sculptor before Banks who had "formed his taste on the antique and introduced a purer style of art". As a draughtsman he was exceptionally well trained for his day. He is also noted as a collector; he owned the three wax reliefs by Giambologna now in the V&A. The V&A's collection includes three busts by Nollekens, five of his terracottas, his marble copy after the antique, Castor and Pollux (1767)and his original marble of Diana (1778).'

Julius Bryant on RF 2010/245.

In the ca. 2009 edition of Gunnis's Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, design is identified as 'Sackler priv. col.'

The related design is on E.4429-1920 verso.

This design made in the 1770s or 1780s by Joseph Nollekens (1737-1823) is for a wall monument for an unidentified person. It is, however, probably for a naval officer because it is decorated with a flag, anchor, and naval equipment. The sculptor's price of 200 guineas for the monument is inscribed at the bottom of the design. Nollekens is best known as the leading portrait sculptor in Britain between 1770 and 1815. With his fellow Royal Academicians Thomas Banks and John Flaxman he established the British School of sculpture following decades of dependence on immigrant sculptors (such as Rysbrack, Scheemakers and Roubiliac).

E.467-2010