Nemon was Churchill’s choice of sculptor when Elizabeth II commissioned a bust of Sir Winston for Windsor Castle in 1952 and he would go on to create more than a dozen public statues of him including the 1970 bronze that stands in the Members Lobby of the House of Commons.
This small clay maquette, 10in (25cm) high, signed Nemon, came for sale at Semley (22% buyer’s premium) in Shaftesbury on November 13 as part of ‘the property of a lady of title’. It relates closely to the figure of Churchill that appears in Married Love, the sculpture at Westerham Green, near Chartwell, which features the statesman in a similar seated pose alongside his wife Clementine. She said: “That is how I see him and that is how I love him.”
Previous auction results for Nemon-Churchill bronze and resin casts suggested the estimate of £200-300 for this maquette was a little lightweight.
So it proved when it took £4000.
