Relief group created by Maurice Lambert for RMS Queen Mary, estimate £25,000-35,000 at Henry Aldridge & Son.
The Art Deco designs oozed elegance and glamour alongside function and modernity.
Among them was a series of relief groups created by Maurice Lambert (1901-64), who by the mid-1930s was rated with Moore, Hepworth, Skeaping and Dobson as one of the leading new group of sculptors, although later as professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy he was seen as a more conventional artist.
An example of his striking design has been consigned to Wiltshire auction house Henry Aldridge & Son for the April 22 sale.
Measuring 5ft x 21in (1.52m x 53.5cm) and executed by Sterling Foundries Of The Birmingham Qualcast Group, it was installed in the travel bureau on board the main deck.
The Art of the RMS Queen Mary
Originally one of a pair both symbolising ‘Speed and Progress’, the port side panel showing the express train Silver Jubilee behind a galloping centaur is now lost to time. However, this panel depicts a stylised DH86 Imperial Airways aircraft with Pegasus alongside.
It has featured in DM Hinkey’s The Art of the RMS Queen Mary, 1994, and exhibitions at Miottel Museum in California, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (Ocean Liners: Speed and Style, 2018) and the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.
The estimate in the Devizes auction is £25,000-30,000.
