Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra of Wales by Count Gleichen

These bronze figures show Edward, Prince of Wales, standing in a nonchalant pose with one leg crossed over the other, a cigar in his left hand, his hat at his feet and a shotgun slung over his right arm. The elegant Princess of Wales is depicted skating, with feathers in her hat, and wearing a fur-trimmed coat and muff as the wind catches her three-quarter length skirt. Each stamped Elkington & Co Founders and G 1870. English, dated 1870. Provenance: Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Count Gleichen. Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Count Gleichen, was the son of Prince Ernst of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Princess Feodore of Leiningen, half-sister to Queen Victoria. He ran away from school to England in 1848 and was sponsored to enter the Royal Navy by Queen Victoria. In 1854 he attained the rank of Lieutenant after serving as mate on the flagship Cumberland, where his future brother-in-law was captain and his future father-in-law was admiral. In 1866 he retired from the navy and trained with the British sculptor William Theed. As a sculptor, he carried out several portrait commissions for Queen Victoria including a statuette of Prince Alfred, her second son, and another of Prince Albert Victor...

Count Gleichen’s Russian shell paperweight, the tooth shaped fragment of a Russian armament shell set above another of rectangular form both raised on a silver mount on an ebonized rectangular plinth, applied with a plaque reading ‘Two fragments of a Russian shell fired at Mr Fred Burne assist.t paymaster and Mr Henry Crave St John midshipman of H.M.S. Cumberland in Aug.t 1854 from Tsee Fort Bonarsund whilst conveying refreshments to the English camp – for their messmate – H.S.H. Prince Victor of Hohenlohe Midshipman landed with the Naval Brigade in 1854’. With a framed caricature of Count Gleichen inscribed Vanity Fair, London, July 5, 1884. Vice Admiral H.S.H Count Gleichen – the Queen’s Nephew.Russian and English, 1854. The print has the following biography on the reverse and on the mount ‘His Serene Highness Prince Victor …. of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, is better known in England as Count Gleichen and as the Queen’s nephew. Born fifty years ago, he was sent to school at Dresden; but at the age of fourteen he conceived ideas not to be bounded within the confines of the small life of a German principality. So he ran away from school to go to sea, and his aunt the Queen of England, being informed of the fact, proposed to her sister to let her adventurous nephew become naturalised as an Englishman and enter the English Navy. This was accordingly done, and Prince Victor, as he was then called, was appointed to the Powerful on the Mediterranean Station, in 1848. He served in the Crimean War and in the operations in China he proved a popular officer and a good sailor-man, and was three times wounded in battle. In 1861 he married the daughter of Admiral Sir George Seymour, sister of the fifth Marquis of Hertford on which occasion it was that he put down his title of Prince and took up for future use that of Count. He became, in due course a Vice-Admiral, and in the meantime he also became a sculptor. It is in the latter art that he now mainly busies himself, and he has created many pleasing busts of his royal relatives and some works of greater pretensions than family portraits. An Alfred the Great, a Beaconsfield, and a Prince Imperial...

This bronze is the maquette for a sculpture of Lord Louis Mountbatten wearing a naval duffel coat, peaked cap and sea boots and holding a pair of binoculars. It is set on a highly polished black stone base and inscribed on the back ‘Mountbatten Study, G. Berlin no. 3 of 3’. English, 1989. We are indebted to Ms Berlin for her kind help in supplying the following information. “I made this piece as a working model, maquette, to show, along with another image, to the clients who were offering the commission for the nine-foot bronze of Lord Mountbatten...

This superbly crafted wheel barometer and thermometer has a mahogany case surrounded by twisted brass stringing and central panels of foliate tendrils above Russell’s signature thistle motif in black and gilt verre églomisé. It is surmounted by a brass Prince of Wales feather finial. The long, rectangular thermometer plate is inscribed ‘Thermometers: Beaumar, Fahrenheit, Royal Society of London’, the latter being an early attempt to standardise temperature measurement. The circular dial is inscribed ‘Changeable, Fair, Settled Fair, Much Rain’ and ‘Rain’ and signed across the centre ‘J Russell, Falkirk, Invt et Fecit, Watch Maker to his R.H the Prince Regent’. The reverse has a paper label ‘Russell, Iden Collection Inventory 1896’. Scottish, circa 1815. Provenance: Mr Walter Iden. Published: Percy G. Dawson, The Iden Clock Collection, Woodbridge, 1987. No.125, p.280. These ‘royal barometers’ were so named because John Russell of Falkirk...

This is the bronze maquette for a bas-relief portrait commissioned by the City of Winchester in honour of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The final roundel is six feet in diameter and is shaped as a Winchester Rose with Queen Elizabeth II in the centre. She is wearing a three-strand diamond necklace and the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara. Signed ‘VM 1’. English, 2012. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara was made by the House of Garrard...

A Victorian brass novelty clock by Elkington & Co., in the form of a double steering-wheel, one wheel enclosing a clock and the other a barometer, with ...

Staffordshire Figurine of Albert and Victoria, Prince and Princess of Whales; they were widely popular and beloved by the English; made in England;...

English Edwardian lifesize gilt carved figurehead of Edward VII wearing a crown and holding a globe (early 20th cent.)

A very fine antique Coalport parian bust of the Prince of Wales sculpted by John Rose and dated 1863. Probably made to commemorate the forthcoming marriage of Albert Edward Prince...

A hand decorated antique English heraldic tile depicting the coat of arms of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), dating from 1881. This porcelain tile is one of 14 sim...

A very fine antique Copeland parian bust of the Princess of Wales sculpted by F.L. Miller for the the Crystal Palace Art Union and dated 1863. Probabl...

A very stylized pair of sculpted miniature granite heads depicting a mystical Prince and Princess, both signed ISC McLeod (for Scott McLeod) and dated 199...