William Skye Art

Antique Polychrome Wood Carving Igbo Nigeria Africa, Staff decorated with two figures, mounted as a finial on the shaft terminating in a triang...

These cast figures and objects express status, prestige, and power. This cast metal figure exhibits the technical skill and artistry that Dogon blacksmiths brought to their work. Mad...

This elegant terracotta head is a memorial portrait (nsodie) of an Akan nobleman from the part of Africa which is today southern Ghana and southeastern Cô...

An extraordinary group of Ibeji "triplets" sculpted by the same master sculptor. Ibeji is name of a very specific type of carved wooden figure from Yoruba in Nigeria. Ibejis repre...

An elegant African sculpture from the West African Baoulé or Baule people, depicting a young woman wearing a loincloth. Smooth black lightly worn patina.

"Lingbi - One Hole Scholar's Rock"' is a sculpture, stone on wood base from the Late Qing Dynasty, China.

“Scattered across the Ivory Coast, Mali and Burkina Faso, the million and a half Senufo tribespeople live principally off the fruits of agriculture and occasionally hunting. They in...

Finely carved mythological roman subject of Minerva in Marble Travertino . Excellent condition from an estate of Veneto. Measurements: Statue cm 180 . Minerva (Pallas Athena in Greek...

Signed and dated: ‘F. Harwood Fecit 1764’ Collections: Probably commissioned by Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon (1743-1827); Probably by descent at Gordon Castle, Banffshire to c.1948; Possibly acquired by Bert Crowther of Syon Lodge, Middlesex; Jacques Hollander (1940-2004); Christie’s, 5 December 2013, lot 101; Private collection; Sotheby’s, 2 July 2019, lot 106 Literature: John Preston Neale, Views of the seats of noblemen and gentlemen, in England, Wales and Scotland, London, 1822, vol.I, unpaginated. This marble copy of an ancient bust in the Musei Capitolini usually identified as Faustina the Younger, the daughter of Antoninus Pius and future wife of Marcus Aurelius, was made in Florence by Francis Harwood in 1764. Harwood was one of the most prolific suppliers of decorative marbles for the Grand Tour market and this finely worked example demonstrates the quality of luxury goods available to travellers to Italy. So often anonymous, this unusually signed and dated example, raises questions about the status of marble copies in the period and of sculptors such as Harwood who are known principally for ornamental work. Harwood’s origins remain obscure. He is documented living in Palazzo Zuccari with Joshua Reynolds and the Irish sculptor Simon Vierpyl at Easter 1752, he had certainly settled permanently in Florence by the following year, when he is recorded working with Joseph Wilton. He was admitted to the Florentine Academy on 12 January 1755 (as pittore Inglese, although he was described as scultore in the matriculation account). After Wilson returned to England in 1755 Harwood appears to have worked in a studio near SS. Annunziata with Giovanni Battista Piamontini who had made life-size copies of The Wrestlers and The Listening Slave for Joseph Leeson in 1754. In 1758 both sculptors were contracted to make a statue and a trophy to complete the decoration of the Porta San Gallo, Harwood completing a statue of Equality, installed the following year. By 1760 Harwood was on the brink of his most productive period as a sculptor, producing copies of celebrated antiquities for the ever-increasing audience of Grand Tour travellers and for the domestic market in London. In 1761 Harwood met the young architect James Adam who was in Italy specifically to make contact with suppliers for Robert Adam’s burgeoning practice back in Britain. The Adams offered a remarkably cohesive design package to their clients, encompassing not just architecture, but fixtures, fittings and furniture as well. Harwood was able to supply the brothers with marbles for their new interiors. At Syon, for example, Harwood produced a full-size copy of Michelangelo’s Bacchus for the new dining room the Adams had designed for Hugh Smythson, 1st Duke of Northumberland. Harwood seems to have also specialised in producing sets of library busts. In 1758 Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton, a distinguished traveller commissioned a set of busts which remain in situ at Castle Ashby in Northamptonshire. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Adam brothers were producing designs for new interiors at Castle Ashby at this date. The set included representations of: Cicero, Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina the Younger, Sappho, Seneca and Homer. Each of these busts Harwood seems to have replicated for multiple patrons, another Adam patron, Thomas Dundas...

Designed as entrance guardians, this pair of mythical lady sphinx statuary display the head and chest of a neoclassical woman and the body of a recu...

Mother Goddess Figurine Early Indus Valley Civilization (circa 3500 - 2800 BC) Handmade pottery, 140 mm x 45 mm, 60 g Provenance: Prince Collection, 1990s-2014; Pierre Bergé Colle...

These cast figures and objects express status, prestige, and power. This cast metal figure exhibits the technical skill and artistry that Dogon blacksmiths brought to their work. Mad...