The process of creating sculpture allows the existence of more than one copy of a work, so the items exhibited may not be the same copies we have described elsewhere on the site.

Very few of the entries actually relate to anything we yet know about from other sources; it would be interesting to know if any of them still exist. 'The Weaver's Wife', No. 7, is known to survive in several versions; the notes below point to some others that we know about and can be found elsewhere in our site.

No.86, F.R. Benson, is believed to have been commissied by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

No. 62, Sketch for a Boer War memorial, is of interest. The South African, or Boer, War of 1899-1902 was one of the first in British history to result in war memorials of the type that became common in later years, distinct from the long-standing tradition of raising statues to Generals.

The Manchester Regiment memorial, which stands in St Anns Square, is by William Hamo Thorneycroft, chosen by committee from a list which included Cassidy; at the time the choice of sculptor created some controversy as there was a vocal lobby for the local man Cassidy to be chosen.

However, Cassidy was apparently commissioned privately by his supporters to produce his own version, which was shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1905. It subsequent history has not yet been discovered.

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Mr. Cassidy's Sculpture

By 'B.D.T.' From the Manchester Guardian, 16 June 1914, p.20.

An exhibition of Mr. John Cassidy's sculpture is to be open for the next ten days at his studio in Lincoln Grove, off Plymouth Grove, Manchester. It contains, in all,  about one hundred pieces - in terracotta, plaster, bronze, stone, and marble, a few works in clay, stone, and alabaster being shown in different stages of progress.

The artist has experimented freely at various times with materials, trying first one and then another with considerable enterprise; and he has also attempted in a number of his works to get away from some of the conventions usually followed both in choice of subject and in treatment. The latter departures have not always been happy. However simple it seems in theory, the literal rendering of everyday life is very difficult to  manage with success in sculpture; and, on tbe other hand, narrative or elaborate allegory is apt to sink into melodrama.

Mr. Cassidy, in some of his works, runs to one or other of these extremes, tending sometimes to be over-literal in his work from life and to be melodramatic in imaginative compositions. The two tendencies are really due to the same cause. The compositions are often vigorous and happy in the first sketch. In the finished group the details are worked out too carefully from life; so that the whole, instead  of being heroic and unified, is in danger of becoming a collection of flgures, each too much individualised.

Working on more traditional lines, the artist wins a much greater success. A plaque in
relief, "After the Crucifxion," is really extremely good; another relief panel, designed for a book-plate, is also very well treated. A large relief portait of Dr. Schunck is, again, excellent in its realisation of character in a profile; another relief portrait (38), near by, is even better in this respect. In the busts, too, the rendering of the profile is often very expressive, as in that of a man called  "The Roadmender." The attempt to combine a familiar easiness of pose with sculpturesque quality succeeds best in a little statuette of the late W. P. Frith. R.A.

Other things among the best are "The Tide," "John Kay," "The Captive," "The Weaver's Wife," in bronze; "Queen of the May," in marble; a bronze panel of "Commerce," in which the relief treatment is, again, good; and some jolly stone garden ornaments.

Portraits are shown of a number of well-known Manchester citizens. Several of the  pieces have been shown at the Salon, the Royal Academy, and other exhibitions.

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Information about the whereabouts of any of the works listed will be very welcome at the email address below.