# Joseph Durham artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/joseph-durham/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T18:36:26.834Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1877-10-27
- Nationality: British
- Movements: Victorian-era British sculpture
- Common media: marble, bronze

## About Joseph Durham

Joseph Durham (1814–1877) was a British sculptor who spent his career in London, producing portrait busts, genre figure sculptures, and commemorative works in marble and bronze. He trained for three years under Edward Hodges Baily, a prominent Royal Academician, and also studied with the sculptor John Francis. Active from roughly 1835 to 1875, Durham worked during the peak decades of Victorian monumental and architectural sculpture in Britain. His output centered on portrait busts and narrative genre groups, reflecting the period's demand for both private commemorative pieces and publicly commissioned statuary. Durham died in London on 27 October 1877. His sculptures appear periodically at auction, where marble busts and small-scale bronze genre figures are the forms collectors are most likely to encounter.

## Common works and media

Durham's documented output includes marble portrait busts, marble genre figure groups, bronze busts and statuettes, and small-scale commemorative or memorial sculptures. His subjects ranged from individual portraiture to allegorical and narrative genre scenes. Works are typically inscribed or signed, and the majority date from the 1835–1875 period of his London activity.

## Market and appraisal context

Joseph Durham's sculptures surface at regional and international auction houses with some regularity, most often as marble portrait busts, bronze statuettes, and marble genre figure groups. Condition is a primary driver of value: marble works with chips, repairs, or surface weathering fetch less, while bronzes with intact patina command a premium. Provenance clarity and the identity of the portrait sitter can also significantly affect results. As a mid-tier Victorian sculptor, Durham's prices remain accessible compared to first-rank contemporaries, but well-documented busts with strong provenance have attracted competitive bidding. Attribution should be confirmed carefully, as Victorian workshop production and stylistically similar contemporaries can complicate identification.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Joseph Durham, identity data is grounded in the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, Getty ULAN, VIAF, Wikidata, and Wikipedia, cross-referenced for consistency.

## Sources

- RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/424171
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5625860
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500317122
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/164958308/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Durham