Henry Webber

File:Memorials including David Garrick.jpg

He was born in July 1754, the son of Abraham Webber, a Swiss sculptor who had settled in England, and his English wife, Maria Quandt. He was apprenticed under John Bacon the Elder and attended the Royal Academy schools. In 1776 he was awarded the Royal Academy Gold Medal.Gunnis, Rupert (1951), Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0CQIQQAACAAJ&dq=Dictionary+of+British+Sculpture+1660-1851&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=5 pp.417-18]. In 1778, Webber was chosen by the Oxford Paving Commission to carry out the sculptures and sphinxes for the balustrade of John Gwynn's Magdalen Bridge. Unfortunately, in 1782 the Commission eventually abandoned this idea, paying a compensation payment and permitting him to keep any sculpture already made.Jaine, T.W.M. (1971) The building of Magdalen Bridge, 1772-1790, [http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxof.php Oxoniensia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324165308/http://www.oahs.org.uk/oxof.php |date=2010-03-24 }} xxxvi, p.69.

This same year, after being recommended by Sir William Chambers and Sir Joshua Reynolds, Webber started working for Josiah Wedgwood's at Etruria, where he became chief sculptor in 1785, position he held until 1806.{{cite web | title = Henry Webber (1754–1826) | url = http://www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/learning/discovery_packs/2179/pack/2436/chapter/2826| publisher = The Wedgwood Museum| date = | access-date = 2010-01-11}} In 1787 Wedgewood sent him on a study tour of Rome, and during this trip he also visited his ancestral home in Switzerland and made a trip to Paris. He returned to England in 1789.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.417

Webber is also the author of the monument to David Garrick in the Poet's Corner in the Westminster Abbey.{{cite web | title = DAVID GARRICK | url = http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/david-garrick| publisher = Westminster Abbey| date = | access-date = 2010-01-11}} This had been begun by John Hickey but Hickey had died during the project and it was passed to Webber to complete. He designed several portrait medallions, including the Sydney Cove medallion.{{cite web | title = Henry Webber (2021–2121) | url = http://www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/learning/discovery_packs/2179/pack/2436/chapter/2826| publisher = The Wedgwood Museum| date = | access-date = 2010-01-11}} He modelled many of the figures for Wedgwood's Portland Vase{{cite web|title=The Portland Vase and the Borghese Vase |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/wedgwood/portlandborghese.asp |publisher=National Museums Liverpool |access-date=2010-01-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015175847/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/wedgwood/portlandborghese.asp |archive-date=2009-10-15 }}

He died on 7 August 1826 at the house of Mrs Kincade at 11 South Crescent in Bedford Square in central London.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.418

• David Garrick in Westminster Abbey (1797)
• Henry Askew in Newcastle Cathedral (1801)

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Category:1754 births

Category:1826 deaths

Category:18th-century English sculptors

Category:19th-century British sculptors

Category:18th-century English male artists

Category:19th-century English male artists

Category:English male sculptors

Category:Wedgwood pottery