Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Furniture

A charming bust of a child’s head by Edwin Whitney-Smith, dated 1910, the girl has her head slightly tilted forwards as she looks out from under a lock of hair, set on a square block signed on the reverse ‘E Whitney-Smith 1910’. This bronze is a reduction of Whitney-Smith’s original marble piece, a photograph of which survives in the V&A (object number AAD/1990/12/63). Another version can be seen in a 1920s photograph of the artist in his studio owned by the National Portrait Gallery (NPG x194201). Neither the identity of the sitter nor title of the work is known. Edwin Whitney-Smith (1880-1952) was one of the pre-eminent sculptors of his day. Born in Bristol in 1880, he became a student of William Harbutt, the headmaster of Bath School of Art, best remembered today for inventing plasticine. Whitney-Smith showed great promise from an early age, opening a studio in St John’s Wood, London, in 1910. He exhibited over 40 pieces at the Royal Academy and despite not achieving Academician status, even with list of illustrious proposers, he became a dear friend of Sir Alfred Munnings, the famous horse painter, and sculpted his portrait. He was, however, elected to the Royal Society of British Sculptors and his works were generally well-received by critics and the general public alike. Aside from the RA, he exhibited in Bristol, at the Paris Salon and the Scottish Academy and his work attracted the attention of such important patrons as the Courtauld family. One of his most famous works, The Waking Child, is in the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull and another, The Irishman, is in the Tate. One version of his bust of Ernest Bevin, the trade unionist, stands in Tooley Street in Bermondsey to this day. An article in The Sphere, published on the 3rd of May 1924, referred to the sculptor as “a well-known sculptor of smiling children” and mentioned his “famous babies’ heads”.

Cast bronze bull sculpture, circa 1890s.

A large plaster female bust in the 1980s vibe reminiscent of Studio 54 in satin white on a wooden base, signed to the back neck area Austin Product...

A hand-crafted terracotta head bust sculpture on a Belgium black marble base, circa 20th century or earlier. Artist/Sculptor unknown. Piece may work well on an end table, library, sh...

1970s figurative female form abstract bronze sculpture having a rich patina in various hues and a textural surface created by the artist. A substantial piece created in solid bronze ...

The “Surolù” art works - this is artistic identity chosen by Vanessa Semaino - arise from the artist 's need to represent women’s condition today, particularly in their emotional sta...

Sculpture, Pair of sculptures by Riace bronzes. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS, INFORMATION OF THE LOT AND QUOTE FOR SHIPPING COST CAN BE REQUEST BY SENDING AN E...

Bronze sculpture, signed Laouse. France, circa 1900. Marble base.

1920 head by Erik Cohort bronze sculpture a marble base (lost wax casting by Meroni and Radice foundry France). Erik Cohrt (Denmark, 1902-70) studied at the Academy Reale in Rome, l...

Deftly handmade of gypsum rendered with the marbling technique, which dates back to Ancient Roman times especially typical of the Pompeian paintings,...

From the 1912 Vanderbilt Hotel in New York City, Manhattan, located on Park Ave. In the 20th century, the hotel business declined, and the Vanderbilt Hotel suffered foreclosure in 1935 during the Great Depression. In 1966, an investment group purchased the 54-year old structure with intentions of renovating it into a dual function office and apartment building. The top 18 floors would become studio and one-bedroom apartments while the lower floors would be offices and commercial space. “New aluminum-and-glass curtain walls are being erected to sheath the office floors, while the masonry façade of the hotel will be retained on the upper stories,” said one article. But that was just the beginning of the brutality. Penthouse apartments were being constructed on the roof, but the view was obstructed by the terracotta parapet and its massive sculptures. In June 1966 eighteen of the heads were removed, resulting in a gash in the roofline. “The heavy pieces were removed over a period of several days by a 10-man crew of the Drachman Demolition Company,” said The New York Times, “which used jack...

"Allegory of singing" Important porcelain biscuit representing a seated young woman holding a sheet of music in her hands. A discreet lack of one of the leaves of the floral arrangem...