Albert Arthur Toft [commonly known as Albert Toft] was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, England on 3 June 1862 and was the son of the designer and pottery modeller Charles Toft (1832-1909). He studied at Birmingham School of Art and then at Hanley School of Art and Newcastle-under-Lyme School of Art. He moved to London and attended the National Art Training School in South Kensington, where he was taught by Édouard Lantéri (1848-1917) from 1879 to 1881 [or 1881 to 1883 - sources differ]. In 1883 he was apprenticed to Josiah Wedgwood and Sons where he trained as a potter and became chief modeller. He exhibited frequently at the at the Royal Academy in London from 1885 to 1947. He also exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, Arlington Gallery, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Grosvenor Gallery and New Gallery in London; Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh; Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; Leeds City Art Gallery; Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts; Royal West of England Academy in Bristol; and at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Toft was elected a member of the Art Workers Guild in 1891; a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS) in 1904; and a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors (FRBS) in 1923. He was also a member of Chelsea Arts Club and, from 1899 to 1903, the Birmingham Art Circle.
Notable commissions included a bust of William Ewart Gladstone for the National Liberal Club in London (1888). the Boer War Memorials for Birmingham (1905), Ipswich in Suffolk (1906), and Cardiff (1909); statues of Queen Victoria for Leamington, Nottingham and South Shields; the coronation medal of George V and Queen Mary (1911); a statue of Edward VII for Coventry Square, Birmingham; and a bust of the artist Frank Brangwyn (1937). Following World War One he was commissioned to created many more war memorials including for Stone, Staffordshire (1921); the City and Midland Bank, Upper Bank Street, London (1921); Sandon, Staffordshire (1921); Town Hall, Chadderton (1921); Streatham, Surrey, now London (1922); Savage Club, London (1922); Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire (1922); the Royal Fusiliers, Holborn, London (1922-24); Oldham, Lancashire (1923); Thornton Cleveleys, Lancashire (1923); Benendon, Kent (1923); GKN Ltd., Smithwick (1924); the Armed Forces and Nursing Services at the Hall of Memory in Birmingham (1923); 41st Division, Royal Fusiliers at Fiers, Somme, France (1932). He also designed at least one World War Two war memorial - for the staff at Midland Bank at Canary Wharf, London (1950), which was unveiled after Toft's death.
Toft taught modelling at Camberwell School of Art in London from 1898 to 1908.
His sculpture "The Bather" was purchased by the Chantry Bequest in 1915. He was the author of Modelling and Sculpture. A Full Account of the Various Methods and Processes Employed in These Arts (London: Seeley & Co., 1911). He died in Worthing, Sussex on 18 December 1949.
Text source: Arts + Architecture Profiles from Art History Research net (AHRnet) https://www.arthistoryresearch.net/
