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==Phrenologist==
==Phrenologist==
In a room adjacent to his shop, De Ville gave public shows of part of his collection of casts and skulls.<ref name="Turnbull"/> [[Jonathan Mason Warren]] saw the collection in 1832 and found it impressive; on the same occasion De Ville did a phrenological reading of James Jackson Jr., which Warren did not find convincing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Howard Payson |title=Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D. |date=1886 |publisher=University Press |page=321 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RfQIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA321 |language=en}}</ref> There were casts taken from the collection of [[Joshua Brookes]], and skulls from Australia including some supplied by [[Robert Espie]].<ref name="Turnbull"/>
From 1814, De Ville had business premises at 367 [[Strand, London]], opposite [[Fountain Court]].<ref name="NPG"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Haggarty |first1=S. |last2=Mee |first2=J. |title=Blake and Conflict |date=28 November 2008 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-58428-0 |page=36 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e5l_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA36 |language=en}}</ref> In a room adjacent to his shop, De Ville gave public shows of part of his collection of casts and skulls.<ref name="Turnbull"/> [[Jonathan Mason Warren]] saw the collection in 1832 and found it impressive; on the same occasion De Ville did a phrenological reading of James Jackson Jr., which Warren did not find convincing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Howard Payson |title=Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D. |date=1886 |publisher=University Press |page=321 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RfQIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA321 |language=en}}</ref> There were casts taken from the collection of [[Joshua Brookes]], and skulls from Australia including some supplied by [[Robert Espie]].<ref name="Turnbull"/>


De Ville was the most prominent practical phrenologist, supplier and maker of phrenological casts in London from the 1820s to the 1840s. By 1826 [[Johann Spurzheim]] declared that De Ville's collection was the finest he had ever seen. [[Franz Joseph Gall]] valued De Ville's work, and sent a wax mould of a dissected brain as a token of respect. De Ville's casts were distributed throughout the world; and many still survive in the collection of the Edinburgh School of Anatomy.<ref name="JvW"/>
De Ville was the most prominent practical phrenologist, supplier and maker of phrenological casts in London from the 1820s to the 1840s. By 1826 [[Johann Spurzheim]] declared that De Ville's collection was the finest he had ever seen. [[Franz Joseph Gall]] valued De Ville's work, and sent a wax mould of a dissected brain as a token of respect. De Ville's casts were distributed throughout the world; and many still survive in the collection of the Edinburgh School of Anatomy.<ref name="JvW"/>

Revision as of 18:35, 28 January 2022

James De Ville[1] (12 March 1777, Hammersmith — 6 May 1846 in London) was a British lampmaker, sculptor and plaster-caster, known also as a phrenologist.

Life

From a Swiss Protestant background on his father's side, he was born in Hammersmith, the son of James Louis De Ville and his wife Mary Bryant.[2][3] His family fell on hard times, and as a boy De Ville was fostered by an uncle who had a brickmaking business there.[2] In the 1810s he was in business as a lampmaker and plaster caster, dealing also in lighthouse fittings.[4]

De Ville had a line in architectural metal wares, and supplied lights for the Menai Bridge. He joined the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1823.[5] He also engaged in radical politics.[6] He campaigned against penal transportation, at the same time involving himself with phrenological examination of convicts.[7]

Phrenologist

From 1814, De Ville had business premises at 367 Strand, London, opposite Fountain Court.[3][8] In a room adjacent to his shop, De Ville gave public shows of part of his collection of casts and skulls.[6] Jonathan Mason Warren saw the collection in 1832 and found it impressive; on the same occasion De Ville did a phrenological reading of James Jackson Jr., which Warren did not find convincing.[9] There were casts taken from the collection of Joshua Brookes, and skulls from Australia including some supplied by Robert Espie.[6]

De Ville was the most prominent practical phrenologist, supplier and maker of phrenological casts in London from the 1820s to the 1840s. By 1826 Johann Spurzheim declared that De Ville's collection was the finest he had ever seen. Franz Joseph Gall valued De Ville's work, and sent a wax mould of a dissected brain as a token of respect. De Ville's casts were distributed throughout the world; and many still survive in the collection of the Edinburgh School of Anatomy.[2]

In 1840 De Ville became a member of the Phrenological Association. He resigned in 1842 on the occasion of the great split among British phrenologists when William Collins Engledue (1813–1858),[10] in a speech before the Association, announced that phrenology and materialism were the same.[2]

Head of William Blake. Plaster cast by James De Ville Sept 1823 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)

De Ville examined a large number of heads including those of many well-known figures including John Elliotson, Hermann Prince of Pückler-Muskau, Charles Bray, George Eliot, William Blake, Richard Dale Owen, Richard Carlile, the Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert.[2] Harriet Martineau, a believer in phrenology but mocker of incompetent phrenologists, found it amusing that De Ville's examination of her head led to the conclusion that she lived "a life of constant failure through timidity."[11]

Bibliography

  • Outlines of Phrenology, as an accompaniment to the Phrenological Bust (1824).
  • Manual of Phrenology as an accompaniment to the Phrenological Bust (1826, 1828, 1831, 1841).
  • 'Account of a number of cases in which a change had been produced on the form of the head by education and moral training-Phrenological Association, Glasgow', Phrenological Journal, 14 (1841) pp. 32–8.
  • Browne, James P., 'Memoir of the late Mr James De Ville', Phrenological Journal, 19, 1846, pp. 329–344.
  • "Mr De Ville's Collection", Phrenological Journal, 14 (1841), pp. 19–23
  • Cooter, R., Phrenology in the British Isles: An Annotated, Historical Bibliography and Index (1989).
  • Pückler-Muskau, Briefe eines Verstorbenen: Ein fragmentarisches Tagebuch aus Deutschland, Holland, England, Wales, Irland und Frankreich, geschrieben in den Jahren 1826 bis 1829 (1830).
  • Simpson, J., "Result of an Examination, by Mr. James Deville, of the Heads of 148 Convicts, on board the Convict Ship England, when about to sail for New South Wales in the Spring of 1826", Phrenological Journal, 4, 1826/7, pp. 467–71. Reprinted in R. Cox, Selections from the Phrenological Journal: comprising forty articles in the first five volumes, chiefly by George Combe, James Simpson and Dr. Andrew Combe (1836) pp. 140–3.

References

  1. ^ His name is also written Deville by historians but all 19th-century references and especially those published by De Ville himself are spelled as two words not one.
  2. ^ a b c d e "History of Phrenology on the Web". www.historyofphrenology.org.uk.
  3. ^ a b "British bronze sculpture founders and plaster figure makers, 1800-1980 - D - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  4. ^ Cooter, Roger (1984). The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-521-22743-8.
  5. ^ Skempton, A. W.; Chrimes, Mike (2002). A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland: 1500-1830. Thomas Telford. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-7277-2939-2.
  6. ^ a b c Turnbull, Paul (29 November 2017). Science, Museums and Collecting the Indigenous Dead in Colonial Australia. Springer. pp. 160–163. ISBN 978-3-319-51874-9.
  7. ^ Giustino, David de (17 June 2016). Conquest of Mind: Phrenology and Victorian Social Thought. Routledge. pp. 155–156. ISBN 978-1-317-23775-4.
  8. ^ Haggarty, S.; Mee, J. (28 November 2008). Blake and Conflict. Springer. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-230-58428-0.
  9. ^ Arnold, Howard Payson (1886). Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D. University Press. p. 321.
  10. ^ See William Collins Engledue, M.D..
  11. ^ Orestano, Francesca (2009). Strange Sisters: Literature and Aesthetics in the Nineteenth Century. Peter Lang. p. 49. ISBN 978-3-03911-840-3.
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