William Bloye

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Stone mermaid at Birmingham University Guild of Students

William James Bloye (1890 - 6 June 1975) was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II.

He studied, and later, taught at the Birmingham School of Art, where his pupils included Raymond Mason and Gordon Herickx. He also studied stone-carving and letter cutting under Eric Gill around 1921.

In 1925 he became a member of the Birmingham Civic Society, having, at about that time, a studio on Golden Hillock Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. As Birmingham's unofficial civic sculptor he worked on virtually all public commissions including libraries, hospitals and the University. He often carved bas-relief plaques, typically for public houses in Birmingham.

He became a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1930 (the two 1919 bronze plaques on the RBSA are the earliest known work by Bloye in Birmingham), and the Royal British Society of Sculptors: ARBS in 1934, and FRBS in 1938. Retiring from the School of Art in 1956 he moved to Solihull. He died in Arezzo, Italy in 1975.

[edit] Works

Boulton, Watt and Murdoch on Broad Street, Birmingham, 1956
Interior bas-relief carvings in the Hall of Memory, Birmingham, 1925
Mermaid fountain and also stone mermaid sculpture on wall, both at the University of Birmingham Guild of Students
Recast in bronze the bust of Josiah Mason from a former marble statue by Francis Williamson. Now at the junction of Chester Road & Orphanage Road in Erdington, 1952
Recast in bronze the statue of Queen Victoria in Victoria Square, Birmingham, 1951
Sculpture Allegories of Art and Industry, c 1919, over the north-west door of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (The Feeney Gallery extension), Great Charles Street
Bas-relief on the Mechanical Engineering Building at the University of Birmingham, 1954
Bas-relief pub signs on The Bear, The Antelope, and The Mermaid, Sparkhill