Robert Glassby Snr

Born 17 December 1835
Died 3 August 1892

Active: 1850 - 1892

Country of birth and death: England

Sculptor, studio assistant, medallist, stonemason

Born in Mexborough, Yorkshire. He was the son of William Glassby (1813-64), stonemason but was raised by his grandfather, Robert Glassby Senior (1775-1849) a parish clerk and school teacher. The younger Robert was first trained as a shoemaker but by the age of 15 was apprenticed to a Joseph Barlow, a quarry owner. After four years Glassby was employed as a journeyman stonemason by an uncle, John Gill, in Wolverhampton, then by Messrs Anelay & Co in Doncaster and from 1856 by Joseph Hadfield, at the Norfolk Lane Marble Works, Sheffield. A year later he commenced studying drawing and modelling at Sheffield School of Art. In 1858, using the proceeds from the sale of works to a local patron, Glassby went to Paris and followed a course of independent study.

One of Glassby's first positions after returning to England in 1860 was to work as a marble carver for the Polish sculptor, Emmanuel Edward Geflowski (1834-98) in Liverpool. In about 1864, Geflowski went bankrupt and Glassby moved to London where he continued his studies first at the London School, and then at the Royal Academy Schools (from December 1864). His primary means of support was working successively in the studios of the sculptors Henry Weekes, John Birnie Philip (both brief appointments, whilst with the latter he assisted in the carving of the podium reliefs for the Albert Memorial and sculpture for the Foreign Office, Whitehall), then from 1864-8 with Baron Carlo Marochetti and lastly as principal studio assistant to Joseph Edgar Boehm between 1870-90. On Boehm's death, Glassby was entrusted with completing a number of works left incomplete, including the statue of Emperor Frederick III, originally sited in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle (now at the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore). Glassby was one of the staff to travel in Boehm's funeral cortège: "In the fifth carriage were the following members of the professional staff of the deceased – Mr. R. Glassby, Mr. E. Lanteri, Signor Finili, and Herr Gross."

Glassby also pursued an independent practice, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy. In 1875 he was made an associate member of the Sheffield Society of Artists and became an active committee member. At the time of his death, Glassby was working on a marble bust of H.R.H. the late Grand Duke of Hesse, commissioned by Queen Victoria for the Royal Mausoleum, Frogmore, and a bust of Thomas Carlyle. His son Robert Edward C.F. Glassby studied at the Royal Academy Schools and exhibited at the Royal Academy. There is some confusion in Graves (1905) and possibly also in Forrer (1923) between work produced by father and son. Robert Glassby died from liver and heart disease leaving his family without means of support. Edouard Lanteri, who had also been an assistant of Boehm, helped organise a fund to provide them with financial assistance.

This record contains information supplied by Michael Piper, whose extensive research on Robert Glassby Senior and Robert Edward Glassby Junior is available at http://glassby.com/Chapter1.htm (accessed 6 September 2012).

Citing this record

'Robert Glassby Snr', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1240827318, accessed 29 Mar 2023]