A Bronze Bust of Sir William Fairbairn 1st Baronet of Ardwick (1789-1874) by Edward William Wyon, (1811-1885)
Signed on the back: 'E.W. Wyon Sculptor 1863' and 'C. Delepech Redt'.
Height:32cm.
Edward Wyon studied at the Royal Academy schools from 1829, and became a celebrated sculptor, exhibiting at the Royal Academy regularly from 1831 to 1876.
William Fairbairn was the greatest Scottish mill-builder and experimental engineer of the middle quarters of the nineteenth century, a major contributor to iron shipbuilding during the critical decade 1835-44, and to wrought-iron bridges during two of the most formative decades in bridge-building, 1845-64.