CAST FROM THE MODEL BY JOHN BELL, MID-19TH CENTURY

John Bell's (d.1895) model of The Eagle Slayer was conceived in 1837 and exhibited in plaster at the Royal Academy in the same year. The sculpture next appeared, again in plaster, as No. 106 in the exhibition held by the Royal Fine Arts Commission in 1844 to select sculptors for the portrait statuary of the New Houses of Parliament. At this point Bell had already been commissioned by the Earl Fitzwilliam to executed a life-size version of the model in marble for Wentworth Woodhouse (Sold in these Rooms, 15 July 1986, lot 95). Shortly afterwards, the Art Union published an edition using the good offices of E. W. Wyon. The composition was thus popularised among subscribers and was consequently exhibited repeatedly and re-published throughout the latter half of the century. In 1851 the Coalbrookdale Company cast life-size versions of the model both in cast-iron and bronze for the Great Exhibition and a limited edition was subsequently published. The present cast belongs to his period, examples from which are rarely seen.