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William Bally (1796 – 8 November 1858) was a Swiss sculptor and phrenologist active in Manchester, United Kingdom.


Life

Born in 1796 in
Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech Rep ...
, Switzerland, William Bally travelled as an artist with Johann Caspar Spurzheim from 1829. In 1832 it was advertised that he had created a set of 60 small plaster phrenological busts in a collaboration with him. He came to England and employed
George Holyoake George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the terms secularism in 1851 and "jingoism" in 1878. He edited a secularist paper, the ''Reasoner'', from 1846 to J ...
in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
during the 1830s. At this time he was an associate of
George Combe George Combe (21 October 1788 – 14 August 1858) was a trained Scottish lawyer and a spokesman of the phrenological movement for over 20 years. He founded the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1820 and wrote a noted study, ''The Constitution ...
. The relationship with Holyoake ended badly, on Holyoake's account, Bally moving to Manchester and not making a promised cast of his head. By 1836, Bally was curator of the
Manchester Phrenological Society Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
, which had been founded around 1829 and met for some time in rooms below his gallery. It included members who were surgeons, which may have helped him in gaining access to interesting subjects and post mortems. The organisation accumulated a large number of phrenological busts, with 210 being acquired in its first year. By the 1840s, phrenological exhibitions were being held at the
Manchester Mechanics' Institute The Mechanics' Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester, is notable as the building in which three significant British institutions were founded: the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) and the University of ...
, attracting over 100,000 visitors and comprising thousands of casts, busts and masks. In 1841, Bally, who at least sometimes used a pantograph to create his work, made casts of inscriptions on Manx crosses, and later sold them to the antiquarian Henry Dryden. He took part in a demonstration of hypnosis by James Braid in 1844. In July 1849, after returning from a trip to the continent, Bally was advertising his services as a phrenologist with rooms at 54
King Street, Manchester King Street is one of the most important thoroughfares of Manchester city centre, England. For much of the 20th century it was the centre of the north-west banking industry but it has become progressively dominated by expensive shops instead ...
, where he was charging five shillings for a consultation and rather less for attending to more than two people from the same family. Bally suffered from ill-health in his later years. In December 1850, it was announced that he had suffered a third "paralytic stroke" and was once again debilitated. A subscription fund was organised to support him and, together with a benefit concert, raised around £400. An 1851 article in '' The Times'' suggested that the coloured waxes that he used for modelling contained toxic materials and that these were the cause of ulceration in his throat and paralysis in his hands and arms; he was periodically "completely paralysed". The substances varied according to colour but included
white lead White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was ...
, copper,
chrome yellow __NOTOC__ Chrome yellow is a yellow pigment in paints using monoclinic lead(II) chromate (PbCrO4). It occurs naturally as the mineral crocoite but the mineral ore itself was never used as a pigment for paint. After the French chemist Louis ...
and
vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its corresponding color. It is ...
. They probably entered his body through absorption and ingestion. Despite his poor health, Bally exhibited a bust at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He had recovered sufficiently to work by late 1852 and in early 1853 moved premises to Victoria Street. He reduced his prices and moved the studio to his house at Peel Terrace, on Tamworth Street,
Hulme Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word f ...
, in December 1855. His wife, Anna Maria Matilda Bally, died there in February 1856 and later that year Bally was once again operating his studio from Victoria Street. Continued poor health meant that the funds raised by his supporters in 1850 had largely sustained Bally thereafter, being paid to him in instalments of no more that 30 shillings per week. He was confined to bed for the last two years of his life and in July 1858 a further appeal for funds to assist him was made because the original amount was close to exhaustion. This drew support from donors such as
Oliver Heywood Oliver Heywood (9 September 1825 – 1892) was an English banker and philanthropist. Born in Irlam O'Th' Height, Lancashire, the son of Benjamin Heywood, and educated at Eton College, Heywood joined the family business, Heywood's Bank in ...
and John Potter. Bally died in Manchester on 8 November 1858 and was buried with his wife a week later in a tomb at St Wilfrid's Roman Catholic Chapel in Hulme, where he had worshipped. In accordance with his instructions, a death mask that he had made of his wife was placed in his coffin. Bally had amassed a collection of about 1000 phrenological busts but most of it had been bought from him during his lifetime with the intention that it would be put on display in a museum that, at the time of his death, had not been built. They were stored for some time at the Manchester Mechanics' Institute on Cooper Street and later trusted to the interim care of Manchester Corporation. The remaining busts were bequeathed to Beneditti Lamarto, who was another Swiss practitioner. The fate of the collection is unknown: it was deposited in a museum at Harpurhey in 1860 and thereafter there is no record, although some examples of his work have been discovered and may or may not have formed part of that collection.


Works

Around 1833, Bally's book titled ''Mons. Bally’s Lectures on Casting, Modelling, &c.'' was published in Nottingham by J. Hicklin and Co. Bally's purely sculptural works included a wax portrait of
John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, (4 June 1751 – 13 January 1838) was a British barrister and politician. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806 and again between 1807 and 1827. Background and education Eldo ...
, and busts of the
calico Calico (; in British usage since 1505) is a heavy plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may also contain unseparated husk parts. The fabric is far coarser than muslin, but less coarse and thick tha ...
printer Salis Schwabe and Samuel Fletcher. At the
Liverpool Academy of Arts The Liverpool Academy of Arts was founded in Liverpool in April 1810 as a regional equivalent of the Royal Academy, London. It followed the Liverpool Society of Artists, first founded in 1769, which had a fitful existence until 1794. Two local a ...
he exhibited busts of Samuel Hope (1832) and Thomas Henry Illidge (1837). His phrenological busts included a death mask of William Palmer, a murderer who was executed. In 1844, he also made a cast of the interior of
John Dalton John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist and meteorologist. He is best known for introducing the atomic theory into chemistry, and for his research into colour blindness, which he had. Colour b ...
's cranium and of a
cyst A cyst is a closed sac, having a distinct envelope and division compared with the nearby tissue. Hence, it is a cluster of cells that have grouped together to form a sac (like the manner in which water molecules group together to form a bubble) ...
therein, having arrived at the Manchester Royal Infirmary too late to make a caste of the head and face. Thomas Turner, a surgeon who lectured at the Manchester Royal Institution, used Bally's phrenological casts in demonstrations there in the 1840s.


References

Notes Citations


External links

*
National Museums of Science & Industry page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bally, William 1796 births 1858 deaths Swiss sculptors Phrenologists People in health professions from Manchester People from Locarno