New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-08-01

Cromwell in It's stead, though. of course. Van
Dyck never painted any equestrian portrait Of
Cromwell A number OF engravings were struck
off by Lombart showing the Van Dyck picture
of Charles I with the head Of the Lord Pro-
tector figuring on the shoulders of the unfort
innate monarch, and 1t is needless to say that
these prints highly priced BY collectors. On
the Restoration and advent to the throne OF
Charles II Lombart once more altered his plate
obliterated the head of Cromwell and restored
that of Charles /. Those collectors who anx-
ious to find means OF distinguishing between
the proofs struck off from the Lombart plate be-
fore the execution of King Charles and after
the restoration of his son will be readily able to
do when 1t is pointed out that on the
cravings printed after the Restoration the sash
Of the sovereign is worn round the waist in
stead of over the right shoulder and the page
boy has slight mustache.
Many know the story of the bronze statue of
Charles 1 at Charing Cross the finest piece of
sculpture of the kind in London. After the exc
cution OF Charles II was sold by the Puritans to
John Rivet for old metal The worthy brazier
drove brisk trade during the term of office of
Oliver Cromwell in bronze handled knives and
forks which he sold to Cavaliers and Round
heads alike as having been made of the broken
up statue. which meanwhile was safely buried
several feet deep in his back yard. At the Res
toration il exhumed and erected on its pres
ent site, its pedestal having been designed by
Grinding Gibbons. There another Stuart
statue In London, of marble. not of bronze. pur-
porting to represent Charles H. II had been set I'D
by Robert Viner, London goldsmith, In token
of gratitude for the favor bestowed upon him
by the Merle Monarch" In Unexpectedly pay
ing his bill. Viner wanted to do the thing cheap,
and therefore commissioned of his foreign
correspondents to buy any statue that could be
got at a reasonable price. That OF John Sobieski,
King of Poland. was then in the market. II
represented the deliverer of Vienna on horse
back. tramping on a PROSTATE Moslem. A few
touches of the chsel changed the Polish King
into an unrecognizabIe likeness of Charles H.
while the PROSTATE Turk similarly trans
figured 10 represent Cromwell--in a turban.
What has become OF this statue. which long
adorned London. am unable to say.
1t remains TO be seen whether this art of
statue grating and of manipulation OF plastic
portraits of men of note will ever find any ap-
plication in the United States. Although statue
mania has not attained here the proportions
which II has reached at Paris. a metropolis
which is burdened with considerably more than
one thousand effigies in marble and bronze. the
majority of them being OF people for whose
memory the public does not rap, yet every
big city in America is exposed to the affiiction
contained In pressing offers OF statues which
possess public interest either as works OF
art in the choice of subject. Some American
cities, indeed, have statues OF which they would
be glad to get rid Why not utilize the trunks
and graft thereon the heads of the popular
favortes for the time being? Perhaps that is
what has been done to the lost statue of John
c. Calhoun for which the city of Charleston is
making search all over the United States. Who
knows but the body of the statue of the South
ern statesman may not be found somewh here
with q strange head7 EX-ATTACHE.