Fine Art Society cast of Charles Sargeant Jagger’s maquette for The Driver, $32,500 (£27,000) at Doyle.
The proceeds of the sale on September 13 will benefit The American School in Switzerland, where MacDermid attended from 1961.
As something of an anglophile and with many friends in London, works by several British artists were well represented in the collection.
Estimated at $20,000-40,000 was a posthumous cast of Charles Sargeant Jagger’s celebrated maquette for The Driver, a figure that appears in the Royal Artillery Memorial on Hyde Park Corner.
Made in 1921-25, the monument features a model howitzer in stone surrounded by four soldiers in bronze, including The Driver standing with arms outstretched.
The maquette’s presence in the collection reflected MacDermid’s family history. His uncle and namesake, Lt Donald R MacDermid was killed in action fighting for the British in France.
Original casts are few and very expensive (Christie’s sold one in 2006 for a premium-inclusive £422,500). However, this 2ft 10in version is number 6/10 from an edition created by The Fine Art Society, London. The hammer price was $32,500 (£27,000).
Boy on a Beach by Henry Scott Tuke, $55,000 (£44,200) at Doyle.
Also purchased from The Fine Art Society (it had formed part of its exhibition The Rustic Image in 1979) was Boy on a Beach by Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929). One of the artist’s many Impressionist-style images of nude young men and boys, it measured 10 x 14in (25 x 35cm) and was dated 1912.
Tuke first painted these oil studies of young male nudes during a tour of Italy in his early 20s but the theme did not become central to his work until he had moved back to Cornwall in the late 1880s. This work, showing the subject from behind, was painted when the artist enjoyed a considerable reputation. He was elected to Royal Academy two years later in 1914.
Estimated at an appealing $15,000-25,000, it took $55,000.
Fellow artist
Henry Lamb Bathing by Augustus John, $27,500 (£22,100) at Doyle.
Sold at $27,500 (£22,100) was Henry Lamb Bathing by Augustus John (1878-1961).
The youthful subject, shown in striped bathing trunks standing on a rocky outcrop, was the Australian-born painter Henry Taylor Lamb (1883-1960) who was a founder member of the both the London Group and the Camden Town Group. Augustus John was Lamb’s mentor and best friend.
The 17 x 15in (42 x 37cm) oil on canvas board had last sold at Sotheby’s in June 1996 for £3600. Reputations have increased significantly since then and this time bidding went well above the $12,000-18,000 estimate.
See Art Market in this edition for more works by Henry Scott Tuke.
