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Benjamin Creswick, RBSA (1853–1946) was an English sculptor.


Life

Benjamin Creswick was born in Sheffield, the son of a spectacle-maker. He started his working life as a knife-grinder, but took up sculpture with the encouragement of John Ruskin. In 1887 he modelled a terracotta frieze showing the processes of knife-grinding for the exterior of Cutlers' Hall, in Warwick Lane in the City of London. In the same year he made a frieze for Henry Heath's shop in
Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
, London, showing hat-makers at work. Creswick worked on various projects with
A.H. Mackmurdo Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo (12 December 1851 – 15 March 1942) was a progressive English architect and designer, who influenced the Arts and Crafts Movement, notably through the Century Guild of Artists, which he set up in partnership with ...
, such as the decoration of Pownall Hall in Cheshire, and contributed to the display by Mackmurdo's
Century Guild The Century Guild of Artists was an English group of art enthusiasts that were active between c.1883 and 1892. Their work was primarily based on 18th century motifs, though some work was Art Nouveau in style. History The Guild was founded in 1882 ...
at the Inventions Exhibition in 1885, though he did not join the guild until the following year. He spent some time in Liverpool and Manchester, before moving to Birmingham, where he was Master of Modelling and Modelled Design at the Birmingham School of Art from 1889 to 1918. He exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1914, becoming an associate, and subsequently a member, of the RBSA, and eventually its Professor of Sculpture. He was responsible for a number of architectural sculptures, which can still be seen on Birmingham buildings. He lived at a house called Elmwood, in Jockey Road, Sutton Coldfield, then in