Bronze bust of Sandra Dorne by Jacob Epstein – £11,000 at HRD Auction Rooms.
The 22in (56cm) high bronze bust, signed behind the shoulder Epstein 1953 and on a revolving wooden display stand, was consigned to the August 10 sale from a deceased American estate.
Epstein established a reputation for his portraits of celebrities, exuberantly modelled and cast in bronze. Many women aspired to pose for him, Dorne presumably among them.
According to documents offered with the lot, it was shown at the exhibition of Recent Portraits of Jacob Epstein in 1953 at the Leicester Galleries in London before being offered at Sotheby’s New York in 1978, where it appears to have been unsold.
It also stated that the plaster of the Dorne bronze bust was destroyed in 1892, believing this to be a unique cast.
