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Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 |  |
William John Coffee
As winter approached Jefferson received a letter from William J. Coffee, an English artist
skilled especially in plaster of paris who later made the detailed ornamental frieze work for
the university buildings as well as the interior plaster ornaments for Poplar Forest.[137]
Coffee, not yet employed on any of those projects, wrote concerning "inquires with relation
to your Cisterns," a favor Jefferson had asked of him on a previous visit to Monticello.
According to Coffee, what was needed to line the cisterns at Monticello, and what the
university did in fact later use, was "A cement caled Roman Cement but made in England in
many Places it is much Cheaper and by all that have used it in this great City thought to be
the best Cement ever Introduced for works under water. this I my Self know that in England
20 years Experianc has proved to this to the world its Value." In addition to his letter, Coffee
made and enclosed his "Notes on the Roman Cement," a rambling description of the
substance complete with lengthy detailed directions for its application, with an observation
that "All the new And fashionably Houses have Cistrens made of this Cement and in Som
Cases the Outsids Are decorated it is now coming in to Vouge in this City Very fast." Coffee
told of supposed examples of the cement's success and indicated its cost ($9 pr Barrel of five
Bushels); he also enclosed a "printed Card so that you will know ware to Aply to should you
make up your mind to use it," and "two or three Specimens of the Cement as Imported . . . I
got from out of A Barrel Just Opened in The Public Store for Inspection this you know must
be Considerd a fare trial." After rambling on about the "Operation" of the cement (Coffee's
advice on how to apply it) the eccentric artist concluded, "I fear by this time you will be
very glad my Small sheet of paper is allmost full of Any thing you like to Call it you have
brought it on your Self and thar cant blame me."[138] Coffee's inquiry into the Roman
cement had been done as a favor to help Jefferson fix the cisterns at Monticello, and the
university later benefitted from the investigation when it began to build cisterns to hold
water for the university's fire apparatus (see appendix T).[139]
137. William John Coffee (1774-ca 1846), an oil painter and sculptor who worked in
porcelain, plaster, and terra cotta, emigrated from England to New York City in 1816. The
following year Coffee traveled to Monticello to sculpture the busts of Jefferson and two
family members, daughter Martha and granddaughter Ellen, and in April 1818 he visited
James Madison at Montpelier where he won a commission to model the busts of Madison,
his wife Dolly, and her son. After that Coffee made plaster busts of many other prominent
Americans, and with Jefferson's help he made a southern tour for that purpose in 1821. See
Rauschenberg, "William John Coffee, Sculptor-Painter: His Southern Experience," Journal
of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 4 (November 1978), 26-48, and two unpublished papers
loaned to the author and placed on deposit at the Albemarle County Historical Society by
Brian Bricknell of England, "William John Coffee, 1773-c1846, Modeller, Sculptor, Painter
and Ornamentalist: His Career in America, 1817-c1846," (August 1993), and "William John
Coffee, 1773--c1846, A Brief Review with Emphasis on his Employment by the Derby
Porcelain Factory, (February 1994). Coffee made the composition and leaden ornaments for
all the pavilions and the Rotunda (ViU:PP, Ledgers 1 and 2), and he apparently made the
Bucrania in the freize of the great hall at Estoutesville in 1828. See Lay, "Charlottesville's
Architectural Legacy, Magazine of Albemarle County History, 46:51, Lay, "Jefferson's
Master Builders," University of Virginia Alumni News, 80 (October 1991), 16-19. James
Gibson casted plaster ornaments for the cornices at Pavilion V (ViU:PP, Ledger 1).
138. Coffee to TJ, 7 November 1818, DLC:TJ. Beneath his docket for the letter Jefferson
wrote this memorandum: "the Roman cement is a native production of the Isle of Thanst. it
is an earth impregnated with iron ore, the vitriolic acid & Manganese. and it is said may be
found wherever there is an iron ore."
139. Peter Maverick's engravings of the ground plan of the university show five cisterns, all
of which were located immediately outside the garden walls: one each behind Pavilions V
and VII on the west lawn, and one near the rear of each of the three hotels on the eastern
range (see Guinness and Sadler, Mr. Jefferson, Architect, 136-37, 150, and O'Neal,
"Iconography of the Nineteenth-Century Prints of the University of Virginia," in American
Association of Architectural Bibliographers, Papers VI, 75-80. Other early sources of water
included the old reservoir on Observatory Mountain and two ponds to the northwest of the
Rotunda, photographs of which from the 19th century are in Special Collections, Alderman
Library, ViU; see also O'Neal, Pictorial History of the University of Virginia, 100-101.
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Chapter 2
The Building Campaign of 1818
Documentary History of the Construction of the Buildings at the University
of Virginia, 1817-1828 | |