Bust

This 19th century bronze bust of George Washington cast by the French metal founder Ferdinand Barbedienne after the model by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) will feature in the Bruneau and Co sale at Cranston, Rhode Island, on March 14.

While furniture and books fully justified its title, The Oxford Library Sale at Mallams (22.5% buyer’s premium) was led by a surprise star: a rather lowly regarded gesso bust of the sort that would have been a minor decoration to such a room.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

This Italian marble bust of an emperor, catalogued as 17th century after the antique, provided a moment of saleroom drama at Sworders’ Fine Interiors auction in Stansted on September 10.

One of the highlights of Cottone’s sale in Geneseo, New York, on September 28 will be this marble head of Dionysos, a Roman copy of a late classical (4th century BC) Greek archetype.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

This over life-sized marble bust depicts Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled the Roman empire for just a few short months in the year 193AD. His fleeting 66-day reign took place during the tumultuous period known as ‘The Year of the Five Emperors’ and came to a grisly end when he was murdered by a common soldier.

Single buyer secures two key works by one of the main sculptors of the Enlightenment.

Two rediscovered marble busts by the French 18th century sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) are to be offered in Cottone Auctions’ next sale in Geneseo on March 23.

Black Rock Galleries in Greenwich, Connecticut received bids up to $388,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) for a bronze it believes is Buste de Saint Jean-Baptiste, a previously lost lifetime cast by Rodin.

A little-known Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) sculpture of the British actress Sandra Dorne took an estimate-topping £11,000 at HRD Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) on the Isle of Wight.

Less well-known than other daring young women in their flying machines, Peggy Salaman, or rather a bronze bust of her, emerged from a Mayfair basement to take off in a Suffolk saleroom.

A philosopher of mathematics, the human consciousness and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was described by his teacher Bertrand Russell as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived”.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.