Sculpture

The sale at garden statuary specialist Summers Place Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Billingshurst on March 24 (the day after lockdown) was among the first conducted under new government restrictions on social distancing.

With Storm Ciara getting under way (in pre-coronavirus days…) it was not, perhaps, the ideal time to launch the new weekend sales at Canterbury Auction Galleries (20% buyer’s premium).

This stellar 17th century Baroque ivory plaque depicting the Pieta attended by angels and putti carries the name 'IC Storer' for the German artist Johann Christoph Storer (1621-71).

The Premier Auction at Brunk (23% buyer’s premium) in Asheville, North Carolina included this 3ft 10in (1.17m) carrara marble Cleopatra morente by the Italian sculptor Pio Fedi (1816-92).

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.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s magnetism remains as forceful as ever in UK salerooms.

Briefly catalogued, but accurately estimated, this bronze and ivory dancing couple was the outstanding star at Featonby’s (18.75% buyer’s premium) recent sale in North Shields.

A rare example of newly discovered bronze by a French Renaissance sculptor will be making an appearance at the rostrum on April 1 in Paris.

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.

A sale at Oise Enchères yielded a strong price for a bronze by the French sculptor Louis Hottot (1829-1905).

The sale at Brunk in Asheville, North Carolina, on February 8 includes a 3ft 10in (1.17m) carrara marble Cleopatra morente by the Italian sculptor Pio Fedi (1816-92).

Palace uses power of pre-emption to buy cast of Giambologna’s seminal sculpture at auction.

As implied by a plaque to the base titled 'Aeroplane Par Omertz' [sic], this gilt bronze and ivory figure of a boy in an aeroplane was by Georges Omerth (fl.1895-1925).

While individuals and pairs from the suite of five bronze cricketers by Joseph Durham (1814-77) are occasionally seen on the rostrum, it is rare to find all five appearing together.

Consigned from a scholarly collector in New Zealand, a pair of relief-carved ivory panels was the among the highlights of Fonsie Mealy’s (22% buyer’s premium inc VAT) Castlecomer sale on November 26.