Autograph letter signed by Sculptor Albert Bruce-Joy dated 5 May 1885

BRUCE-JOY, Albert (1842-1924). Autograph letter signed to an unnamed correspondent on the Henry Fawcett memorial scheme.
 
The Studio, Beaumont Road, West Kensington, W., 5 May, 1885.
 
4 pp., on Bruce-Joy’s headed bifolium, with old folds, on mourning stationary. Overall very good. 
 
Albert Bruce-Joy was an Anglo-Irish sculptor trained in London and Paris, known for a wide range of public portrait statues and memorials across Britain and Ireland. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1866, and major works include statues of John Laird in Birkenhead, William Harvey in Folkestone, W. E. Gladstone in London and John Bright in Manchester.
 
In this rare letter on his studio headed note paper, Bruce-Joy refers to a note from Lord Pembroke (13th earl and former secretary of state for war) confirming his support for a proposed memorial to Henry Fawcett, (Millicent Fawcett's writer husband who died a year earlier), but noting that Pembroke would not play an active role in the committee. Bruce-Joy asks for the names of the leading members, as he wanted to communicate with them directly. He was seeking another public commission. The eventual Embankment memorial was executed by Mary Grant and George Frampton.