Sculpture, Carvings & Other
Browse our stock of antique sculpture and carvings including a wide range of busts, stone sculpture, plaques and key stones in a range of materials like stone, wood, cast iron and terracotta.
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Stock: 15390
A small Statuary marble Regency style lion paw sculpture almost certainly once part of a fireplace. English, circa 1860.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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6 3⁄16"
15.8 cms |
4 13⁄16"
12.3 cms |
4 11⁄16"
12 cms |
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Stock: 4196
A pair of small decorative, Statuary marble Regency carved ionic capitals with their original patina. a/f English, early 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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11"
28 cms |
10"
25.5 cms |
10 3⁄8"
26.5 cms |
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Stock: 13433
A finely carved, silvered pine and gesso headboard or overdoor panel. in the English Regency manner. Shaped in the stele style with scrolling shoulders and surmounted by a pierced akroter crest. It is centred by a floral and foliate decorated oval set amid rosette and leaf spay motifs. English, early 20th century.
Link to: Antique panelling and overmantels
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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66 7⁄8"
170 cms |
22"
56 cms |
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Stock: 15393
A limestone architectural capital with acanthus and scrolled carving in the Neoclassical manner. English, 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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15"
38 cms |
10"
25.5 cms |
7 7⁄8"
20 cms |
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Stock: 12744
A pair of architectural Portland Stone c scroll corbels.
English, 18th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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10 3⁄16"
26 cms |
17 1⁄4"
44 cms |
11"
28 cms |
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Stock: 13641
A pair of beautiful, heavy bronze, tapering pilasters of female warriors with dragon crested helmets, ornate breast plates, and draped robes terminating in clawed feet. They are most probably depictions of Athena the Greek Goddess of warfare but also of wisdom, courage, justice, strength and the arts, and are possibly by the French sculptor Provin Serres(1840 - ).
French, circa 1860.
View our collection of: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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8 13⁄16"
22.3 cms |
32 1⁄8"
81.5 cms |
5"
12.7 cms |
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Stock: 15391
A near pair of ornamental statuary marble ionic capitals with scrolled shell cartouche in the Georgian style. Probably once part of the columns on a fireplace surround.
English, circa 1860.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
| Left |
11"
28 cms |
5 3⁄8"
13.6 cms |
5 1⁄2"
14 cms |
| Right |
11"
28 cms |
5 13⁄16"
14.8 cms |
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Stock: 11140
A pair of ornamental Statuary marble collars or plinths in the Jacobean style with strapwork and lozenge carving. Probably once part of a pair of chimneypiece columns.
English, mid 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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7 1⁄8"
18 cms |
10 5⁄8"
27 cms |
5 11⁄16"
14.5 cms |
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Stock: 12051
A small bronze, Art Nouveau model of a pheasant tending her chicks. English, circa 1860.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
depth |
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10 3⁄16"
26 cms |
7 1⁄8"
18 cms |
6 1⁄4"
16 cms |
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Stock: 7237
A single Statuary marble ornamental Corinthian capital in the Neoclassical style with carved rosettes and acanthus leaf detail.
English, 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
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6 1⁄4"
16 cms |
5 1⁄8"
13 cms |
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Stock: 4270
A fine, large Victorian roundel of a Golden Eagle perched on a rocky crag, carved from solid oak.
English circa 1890.
Link to: decorative antiques and furnishings
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Stock: 4922
A pair of small, carved oak Jacobean heads of a noble man and woman probably once the figure heads on a pair of chimneypiece caryatids. Some wear and splits in the wood commensurate with age - a/f.
English, late 17th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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5 1⁄8"
13 cms |
10 5⁄8"
27 cms |
7 7⁄8"
20 cms |
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Stock: 15298
A large and beautiful antique giltwood sunburst centred by a carved mask, mounted on a trompe l'oeil roundel, of the Greek God Apollo as a personification of the Sun. Radiating out from the mask are twenty two sun rays linked to a giltwood framed circle of further trompe l'oeil set with four giltwood bosses. It is likely to have once been a ceiling adornment in a grand Italian palazzo.
Italian, 18th century or earlier.
Photos before restoration.
Notes: Apollo was a Greek Roman deity and one of the Twelve Olympians. Recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth, healing, the Sun and light, poetry and prophecy he was the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Seen as the most beautiful god and the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo is considered to be the most Greek of all the gods. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.[1]
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Diameter |
Depth |
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57 7⁄8"
147 cms |
3 1⁄8"
8 cms |
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Stock: 11475
A small, carved alabaster sculpture of a Middle Eastern gentleman possibly Saladin (the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria), raised on a black marble plinth. The figure may have been cut down from a full size figure please see the last image below.
Early 19th, possibly late 18th century.
View our collection of: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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height without plinth |
height with plinth |
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7 1⁄2"
19 cms |
9 1⁄2"
24.1 cms |
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Stock: 7136
A small marble plaque of a imperious Roman senator carved in low relief.
Circa 1960.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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10"
25.4 cms |
14 13⁄16"
37.5 cms |
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Stock: 2845
A large 19th century Doulton ceramic pediment plaque of a female head with two putti in the Renaissance manner. Some damage a/f .
English, circa 1860.
Link to: Antique Doors and Windows.
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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33 1⁄2"
85 cms |
16 1⁄2"
42 cms |
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| Internal |
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Stock: 9694
A large low relief antique carved Italian circular marble wall plaque of a young Florentine noble in the Renaissance manner. Italian, 18th century.
The last image shows a similar plaque of Ludovico il Moro Sfarzo, the 7th Duke of Milan (1451 - 1508) displayed at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Diameter |
Depth |
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24 13⁄16"
63 cms |
5 1⁄2"
14 cms |
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Stock: 12900
A small Neoclassical style terracotta garden lion in a recumbent position, rather sphinx like, raised on a rectangular base.
English, circa 1870.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
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24"
61 cms |
16 1⁄8"
41 cms |
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Stock: 7579
A finely carved, late George III or George IV Statuary Marble chimneypiece tablet, originally the centre piece of a fireplace frieze, depicting Artemis reclining on rocks with her hound before her. English, late 18th early 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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17 7⁄8"
45.5 cms |
7 13⁄16"
19.7 cms |
2 13⁄16"
7 cms |
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Stock: 14286
A pair of fine marble resin relief plaques, in ornate carved giltwood frames, after the Flemish sculptor Francois Duquesnoy, (1594 to 1644). Copies of the originals made in Paris in the late 19th century. Each depicts Neoclassical scenes of nymphs and cloud-borne putti. One of the figures is probably that of Venus rising from the sea. Each is signed Francois Duquesnoy Paris 1892. The reverse of each bears a bronze medallion with the words Virges Acquirit Eundo ( which roughly translates as We gather strength as we go) and Lutet Parisi M.D. CC.XVIL. In good condition.
French, dated 1892
Notes: Medallion - A depiction of Fame, flying towards a rising sun, sounding one of her trumpets, to which is attached a banner and in her other hand she holds another trumpet.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
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11"
28 cms |
22 3⁄8"
57 cms |
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Stock: 12185
A pair of very large corbelled European Pine brackets or jambs carved in the Baroque manner with elaborately acanthus detail and each terminating in differing Green Man Masks. Possibly once part of a large fireplace. French, circa 1910.
Link to: Antique Baroque Chimneypieces inc English, Italian, French, Flemish Bolection fireplace mantels.
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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8 1⁄4"
21 cms |
60"
152.5 cms |
16 1⁄8"
41 cms |
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Stock: 15224
A striking pair of large ornamental obelisks carved from an exceptional example of softly hued honey and light grey Purbeck Fossil Stone imbued with an abundance of marine fossils including bones, shells, microbes and bivalves and with imprints of early reptiles and animals.
English, circa 1910.
Notes: Purbeck Stone, famous worldwide for the amazing plethora and myriad example of fossils, was laid down during the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous periods. The name is derived from the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where outcrops are most prevalent. It is also found in other parts of southern England most notably along the Jurassic Coast, in Dorset, in the strata exposed in the cliffs and on the beaches west of Swanage.
Link to: antique wall tapestries, panels and paintings
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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6 11⁄16"
17 cms |
30 1⁄4"
77 cms |
6 5⁄8"
16.7 cms |
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Stock: 14987
A charming and finely carved Art Nouveau alabaster bust of a woman with demurely downcast cast eyes. Her casually elegant hairstyle adorned by an entwined leaf wreath and she is raised on a rouge and grey marble base. English or possibly Italian, late 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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13 3⁄8"
34 cms |
23 5⁄8"
60 cms |
8 11⁄16"
22 cms |
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Stock: 14442
An antique Italian carved Alabaster figure of a young bather standing on a rusticated base of rocks, lapped by waves, and resting on a circular moulded plinth. Some minor scuffs and scratches.
Italian, late 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
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24 3⁄8"
62 cms |
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Stock: 14431
A rather beautiful Art Deco Statuary Marble figure of a scantily dressed young lady wearing a bejewelled costume and headdress and seated upon an alabaster plinth which has a patinated brass Phoenician Sphinx mounted to the front. The Portoro Marble base bears the inscription L. Morelli, Florence. Italian, circa 1920.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
overall height |
depth |
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14 3⁄16"
36 cms |
24"
61 cms |
9 1⁄8"
23 cms |
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Stock: 14252
An antique French bronze figure of a young man with a seed pouch hung from an ornate belt at his waist who would originally have been holding aloft a sprig of wheat now sadly missing. He is standing astride sheaves of wheat, a cog ,a mallet and tools. The title " Per Laborem, Gloire et Fortune ", which loosely translates as Glory and Fortune from the Fruits of Labour, is inscribed on the base together with the name E. Picault who was French sculptor (1833 – 1915) best known for works depicting allegorical and patriotic subjects, and mythological heroes, and a small round stamp with the words " Vrai Bronze, BL , Garanti, Paris". French, late 19th, early 20th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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7 1⁄2"
19 cms |
24"
61 cms |
9 1⁄8"
23 cms |
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Stock: 13872
A 19th century patinated bronze of Leonardo da Vinci, the 15th century Italian Renaissance inventor, painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, musician, mathematician, astronomer and so on - a polymath of his time. He is depicted seated on a stool studying a collection of sea creatures, a crab, an eel, a lobster and fish, displayed on a platter held in his hand. Italian, possibly French, late 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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9 3⁄8"
24 cms |
14 3⁄16"
36 cms |
8 1⁄4"
21 cms |
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Stock: 14383
An antique carved beech wood plaque depicting the Coat of Arms of the City of Manchester which was granted to the City in 1842. The City's motto is inscribed on the plaque and reads "Concilio et Labore" which loosely translated means "Wisdom and Effort".
The Coat of Arms depicts the Heraldic Antelope with its chain, a symbol of peace and harmony, extreme courage and discipline also representing the engineering industries; and the Heraldic Lion a symbol of bravery and strength, his crown, a castle is a reference to the ancient Roman fort of Castlefield. Each wears the Red Rose of Lancaster on their shoulders. They flank a central cabuchon depicting a ship representing the trading relationships of Manchester, and a globe covered in bees which in heraldic terms is a symbol of efficient industry. To this day the bee is often used as a shorthand emblem of Manchester.
English, late 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
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28 11⁄16"
73 cms |
11 1⁄4"
28.8 cms |
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Stock: 13871
A patinated antique bronze of Lorenzo de Medici, the 15th century Italian Statesman and the powerful ruler of the Florentine Republic. He was well known for his patronage of Renaissance scholarship. poetry and art most notably that of Botticello and Michaelangelo. He is depicted deep in thought, this figure is deserving of its nickname "Pensieroso" or "The thoughtful one" and is after the original by Michelangelo on the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici in the Chapel of San Lorenzo in Florence. Italian, possibly French late 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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6 11⁄16"
17 cms |
15 11⁄16"
40 cms |
7 7⁄8"
20 cms |
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Stock: 12333
A pair of small very well carved onyx lions passant very much in the Medeci tradition. Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony of which agate is the most popular type.
Possibly Italian early to mid twentieth century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Length |
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9 13⁄16"
25 cms |
18 7⁄8"
48 cms |
28 1⁄4"
72 cms |
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Stock: 13742
A grand and finely modelled life size bronze figure of a prowling tiger.
Powerful and Regal.
Probably 20th Century Japanese.
Weight: 90kg
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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length |
height |
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77 3⁄16"
196 cms |
26 5⁄8"
67.5 cms |
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Stock: 12724
A beautifully carved alabaster group in the manner of Cesare Lapini (1848 - 1890) an Italian sculptor mainly active in 19th century Florence. A maiden, representing Flora the Roman Goddess of Flowers has a child playing at her feet and both are wearing garlands of roses and clasping flowers.
Italian School 19th century.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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10 5⁄8"
27 cms |
32 11⁄16"
83 cms |
9 13⁄16"
25 cms |
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Stock: 13391
A very fine life size marble bust, mounted on a composition coadestone base, of a Greek/Roman philosopher, most probably Plato or perhaps Socrates. Originally from a property in County Durham.
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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11 13⁄16"
30 cms |
24"
61 cms |
9 3⁄8"
24 cms |
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Stock: 13526
A rare Bronze Fountain Group attributed to David Rawnsley (1909- 1977).
Sculptor, Painter, Ceramicist, Film Art Director & Production Designer.
A delightful, unique and beautifully sculpted Fountain of an entwined Mermaid & Merboy resting on rocks by the sea, both are twin tailed. The Merboy holds a large fish from whose mouth a water spout falls into the clam shell beneath. There is another water spout emanating from the abalone shell held above his head. The Mermaid is holding the clam shell in which lies a large starfish. A crab, a lobster and an octopus are climbing the rock beneath and nearby are limpets and coral.
Mermaids & Merboys are legendary figures appearing throughout the centuries in the folklore of many cultures and traditionally could symbolise either danger or good fortune. This pair are of course beneficent. English, circa 1960.
Notes: David Rawnsley was in his own words 'a jack of all trades'. Initially trained as an architect and engineer he entered the film industry in his early twenties as an art director & production designer. Film credits include: 49th Parallel, One of Our Aircraft is Missing, They Flew Alone and In Which We Serve. In the 40's and 50's he started up a series of potteries. The first in Paris was followed by the famous Chelsea Pottery in London in 1952 and later by one in the Bahamas and another in Mexico. His sister Una Hanbury (1904 – 1990) was a renowned Washington sculptor of horses and Rawnsley himself became an acknowledged artist and sculptor. His parents had settled the Rawnsley family on the Isle of Capri in the 1920's and in later years he set up a studio there. During a short visit in 1977 he died of a heart attack and he is buried on the Island. One of his last bronze sculptures, that of a young maiden made in 1972, is mounted on his grave.
Link to: Antique, old vintage fountains, sculptures, garden furniture and statuary
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Width |
Height |
Depth |
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28"
71 cms |
69 1⁄2"
176.5 cms |
25 5⁄8"
65 cms |
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Stock: 11480
A well carved white Statuary marble maiden musician seated on a rock dressed in simple 18th century garb playing a guitar with her attentive, adoring tousle-haired dog lying beside her.
French / Italian, 19th century.
NOTES : The Latin guitar developed from the Cithara and the Oud. The Moorish Oud retained the rounded back, multiple sound holes and wide fingerboard of the oud. The Latin guitar, on the other hand, had a more narrow neck, a flat back and one sound hole. Despite having only four strings, the Latin guitar of the 11th century is clearly the predecessor of the modern guitar, which preceded the Mandolin,developed later in Italy
Link to: Antique sculptures, carvings, bronzes, plaques and tablets
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width |
height |
depth |
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33 1⁄8"
84 cms |
40 3⁄16"
102 cms |
22"
56 cms |
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Antique sculptures
Antique sculptures conjure the vision of ancient civilisations, the classical marble statues of Ancient Greece and Rome - harmonious and idealised - but they are varied in both their materials and their styles.
Antique bronze sculptures
Many ancient statues were copied by sculptors in the 18th century to sell as souvenirs for Grand Tourists. Antique bronze sculptures were popular, which may have been inspired by Greek sculptures that were cast in bronze and only later copied by the Romans in marble. Antique sculptures of this period were predominantly figurative and often represented these classical subjects.
Antique bronze sculptures also enjoyed a great revival in the Renaissance period, in Italy and France especially, the most renowned sculptor of this period being Cellini. His remarkable figurative work inspired many later sculptors to move away from classical poses and create works that were more flamboyant and dynamic. Antique bronze sculptures come in a range of sizes, so suit a variety of positions, whether a small occasional table, a plinth or a mantelpiece.
Antique marble statues
Marble statues enjoyed popularity from antiquity to the present day, from their beginnings as polychromed statues of the deities, they evolved to embody the elegance of many ages, immortalising Kings and Queens, Gods and Goddesses. The beauty of antique marble sculptures is often the way the marble has been selected to represent the form, where the veins of the stone are utilised to emphasise the curves of a body or a natural form. Marble also absorbs light, giving the statue an almost lifelike glow in a way that stone statues of the same subject can’t.
Antique wood carvings
In Europe, antique wood carvings were most commonly found in ecclesiastic settings during the medieval period, but eventually became desirable in private homes. Antique oak carvings from the Victorian period were often inspired by these medieval, 16th and 17th century carvings, and decorative adornments were added over doorways, on ceilings, staircases and wall brackets. Antique wood carvings and sculpture were sometimes polychromed, or painted, to give the carving a lifelike quality.
If you are looking for antique sculptures, London is without doubt a great place to look. From the inspiration of our great galleries and museums, to our showroom, the Capital offers a glimpse into the fascinating world of sculpture and carving.