Albert Toft [SEP] place of death
Albert Toft
Albert Toft (3 June 1862 – 18 December 1949) was an English sculptor.
Toft's career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, Boer War to 1902, and then World War I to 1918, provided plentiful commissions. The "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" describes Toft as one of the major figures of the "New Sculpture" following on from William Hamo Thornycroft and George Frampton. Toft
with Wright standing in a bold upright attitude, as was his wont when addressing an audience. The statue stood close to that to Joseph Priestley, and was joined by the statue to Queen Victoria in 1901. However, following the death of Edward VII, Priestley and Wright were moved to Chamberlain Place in 1913, so that the new memorial to Edward by Albert Toft could be placed next to his mother.
In 1914 the architectural journal "The Builder" published a disparaging review of Birmingham's public monuments, criticising