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An Interesting Find by Anita Coffin Dammin
SOME FIFTEEN YEARS ago, when the ceiling of the Coffin School on Winter Street, collapsed, the heavy plaster miraculously did no damage to the paintings along the walls, but it did destroy two old busts which were displayed on individual shelf-like supports on the east wall. One of these was of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, founder of the school, and it had been presented by a member of the Mathews family of South Carolina, who were kin to the Admiral through the marriage of Sir Isaac's brother, General John Coffin, to Miss Anne Mathews, of Charleston. Anne Mathews Coffin's uncle was the Royal Governor of South Carolina. There was considerable dismay with the loss of the Admiral's bust, and it was found impossible to restore it due to the fact that the plasterof-paris composition was broken up and crushed. A few months ago I discovered that a long unrecognized marble bust of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin was on display at the Boston Atheneum on Beacon Street. It is in superb condition, and I was further excited to learn that the plaster bust had been cast from it. While reviewing the inventory of the Atheneum's collection of sculpture and paintings last spring, Mr. Jonathan P. Harding, of the Curatorial Staff of the Atheneum, made a startling discovery. In a let ter to my son, Tristram Coffin Dammin, he wrote: "I was irked to find that, although the bust was iden tified as that of Colonel Thomas Handsyd Perkins, it had no provenance. While in itself this was not unusual, it was odd in this case in that Col. Perkins was so important to the history of our Library." Col. Thomas H. Perkins and Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin had been the best of friends, and Col. Perkins was a president of the Atheneum. In checking further, Mr. Harding wrote that he found no such bust had been exhibited in the Atheneum's Gallery during the 19th century — but a bust of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin had been on exhibit. Mr. Harding's letter continued: "I then checked our archives, and found that on January 29, 1827, Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin had presented the Atheneum with a bust of himself." It is a beautiful piece of marble sculpture — the work of William Behnes, of London in the year 1826. Mr. Harding stated that the latter half of the notation matched the inscription on the bust, thus further identifying the gift.
