Bust of Oliver Cromwell

Bronze bust of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), dated 1672. The bust is signed by Edward Pierce (c.1630-95, also known as Pearce). Cromwell is represented in plate-armour with a broad strap and buckle across his right shoulder and winged thunderbolt embossed on the breastplate. His head, partly turned and inclined to his right, has curling hair and his face is moulded with a moustache, lip-tuft and wart above his right eye. A number of bronze casts of this bust are known, including one in the National Portrait Gallery collections.

Edward Pearce seems to have spent his youth in the Ward of Aldersgate Without, and was made a freeman by patrimony of the Painter-Stainers in 1656. His marriage is recorded in the registers of St Michael Bassishaw for 22nd October, 1661 'Edward Pearce, painter-stainer, of St Buttloph, Aldersgate, and Ann Smith, widow of St Brides.' (Harl. Soc., vol. 70). Up to this date his only recorded works are busts of Cromwell and Milton. After the Great Fire, Pearce embarked on a series of important commissions for Christopher Wren, who seems to have kept him continuously employed until his death. The first of these was the rebuilding and enrichment of St Lawrence Jewry. This project lasted ten years and Pearce received £7,586 for the commission. During the same period, Pearce carried out alterations and carved decoration to the facade of the Guildhall (GLMR., MS 184/3-4), for which he received £662. In 1672 he produced his second bust of Cromwell, and the following year executed a bust of Wren and undertook carving at St Benet Fink. Pearce also helped to adorn the new Painter-Stainers' Hall (see Court Minute Books, Ms 5667/2 -11th October 1675, for 'carving the Door and all other work...'). During the 1680s and 1690s Pearce produced stone and wood carvings for St Clement Danes, St Matthew Friday Street, St Swithin's Cannon Street, St Andrew Holborn, the Grocers' Hall, the Royal Exchange, the Monument, Hampton Court, Chatsworth and Oatlands Park. His will was proved on 20th April, 1695.