(1754 - 1826), sculptor; b. London, s. of a Swiss sculptor; pupil of John Bacon the elder; RA schools 1772; worked for Wedgwood from 1782 - 94.
1787 - 8 [dep. England Jul. 1787] Turin, Genoa, Leghorn, Florence, Rome (1787 - Nov. 1788), Naples, Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Venice
Appointed head of the ornamental department at the Wedgwood factory in Etruria, Webber was sent to Rome in July 1787 to make models and drawings from works of art in the Capitoline Museum. Josiah Wedgwood, who sent his own son John Wedgwood with him, was counting on some supervision from Flaxman in Rome.1 Their projected route is cited in the itinerary above.
Josiah Wedgwood had hoped that his son would join the factory at Etruria, but from Rome John told his father he did not wish to join the pottery as he would thereby lose the advantages of his education, thus confirming his father's belief that a liberal education ruined a boy for business.1 Webber was still in Rome in November 1788, and John Wedgwood's baggage was about to be sent off from Rome on 24 December.2 They returned together through Switzerland, reaching England in 1789 (DBS).
1. Wedgwood Letters, 306 - 8 (to Wm.Hamilton, 16 Jun. 1787). 2. Constable, Flaxman, 110, 112.