Subject

A ceramic material called an artificial stone, and created by Mrs Eleanor Coade. It became popular in the mid-nineteenth century when there was a high demand for decorative features on buildings. Its selling factor was that it could be moulded into complex shapes. Contrary to popular belief, the secret of its composition still exists. Other London examples: the figures above the entrance to the Twinings tea shop in the Strand and the caryatides on St. Pancras Church in Euston Road. London My London has more information and photos of Coade items.

The Coade factory was on the South Bank, on the site which is now a car park, just south of the Hungerford Bridge railway tracks.

In 1799 Coade appointed her cousin John Sealy (her mother’s sister Mary’s son), already working as a modeller, as a partner in her business, which then traded as 'Coade and Sealy' until his death in 1813 when it reverted to just 'Coade'.