Garden statuary.

The most famous of all of these makers Diane was a woman "Mrs Coade" it is her recipe that most of these statues are made from. She was a very wealthy woman as a result of her secret formula, the statues are known as Coadestone. Despite the weather and acid rain, Coadestone pieces have shown no errosion at all, and even the fingerprints of the workers are still visible on them. There are small pieces that were made as household ornaments as well. When she died the buisness is said to have collapsed because only she knew the formula.

It is being made again now still using the term Codestone

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.fairweather/docs/Coade_Stone.htm

Just been reading about her and her business Pimpernel, fascinating, thanks for the link...

I Wrote a thesis on her many years ago Lincs.

In a similar vein, there was also Pulhamite which was an imitation stone product for making large rockeries

Yes, Andrew that rings a bell. There is a garden in Staffordshire (i think) that has lots of Pulhamite..and buck palace if I remember....

Interesting. I did know that Georgian and Victorians took plaster casts of classical statuary and decorated their homes with them. The V&A has a massive collection as does the Edinburgh School of Art and the National Galleries of Scotland. It must be relatively easy to make a rubber mold then try various concoctions of concrete and stone/marble to make them waterproof for the garden.

Coadestone was a Kiln Fired Product Kidermorie, and very temperature crittical..Even with todays technology (they say they can replicate it) they don't know how Mrs Coade Made her wares..This was not a cottage industry, it was on a huge scale.

I meant the molding was easy - making the stone mix is the hard bit. Coadestone looks lovely, especially as it has aged very well.

My sincere thanks to everyone for all this information.
I hadnt heard of Mrs Coade before. Just shows we go on learning. Will try the Peter Fairweather site.