Joseph Parkinson (b 1853) A PAIR OF VICTORIAN MARBLE LIONS

Joseph Parkinson (b 1853) A PAIR OF VICTORIAN MARBLE LIONS, SECOND HALF 19TH C on rectangular base, inscribed J PARKINSON LINCOLN, black painted moulded stone plinths, 88cm h overall; 59 x 130cm Provenance: Believed originally to have been in the grounds of a substantial Victorian house in Nottingham Park from whence removed in the 1960s.The hitherto unnoticed sculptor is here identified as the Nottingham Stonemason Joseph Parkinson. Born at Burgh le Marsh, Lincolnshire something of his career can be deduced from consecutive censuses. In the first, that of 1861 the eight-year old son of a carpenter is recorded as living with his parents and four siblings. By 1871 he had left home to work as a "Groom (Servant)" at nearby Frisby. Sometime between then and the next census in 1881 he was presumably apprenticed to, or at least had some rudimentary practical experience in a mason's yard, perhaps in Lincoln for from that date until the census of 1911 his trade is that of Stonemason, probably initially working as a journeyman firstly at Birmingham and in 1891 Chapel Allerton, before settling in Nottingham. In the censuses of 1901 and 1911 he and his family are living at 13 Derwent St in the Meadows.Since the lions are inscribed Lincoln they were presumably executed early in his career, perhaps as a demonstration of his aptitude, akin to a cabinet maker's 'apprentice piece'.The properties of the sandstone on which Nottingham is built make it ideal for working. Over five hundred caves are recorded in the city but the most interesting are the 19th century underground follies of Nottingham Lace Manufacturer Thomas Herbert and his cousin William Herbert, created from the 1850s to the 1870s. As originally conceived the scheme for an unusual picturesque Summerhouse-Cave at the end of Thomas Herbert's sloping garden on the edge of the fashionable Park Estate soon expanded to became a grotto and with it the romantic notion of a hermit's cave followed by several tableaux of ancient lore and long dead heroes. Herbert's eccentricity reached its apotheosis in the 'Lions Den', which soon became Nottingham's most celebrated cave. Herbert's cave carvings are all the more strange, fantastical, sometimes comical, because he employed stone and marble masons, rather than professional sculptors, artisans instead of artists.The Nottingham Stonemason William Jennison is known to have worked for Herbert, his carvings including full length figures of Wesley and Lord Brougham. The startling similarity between the form and scale of the present lions and Herbert's bizarre, terrifying beasts in their gloomy underground den, suggest the same mason may well have been responsible.