Lot Essay
Thornycroft's model, Girl tying her sandal, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903 (no. 1729), was originally conceived as part of a series of at least fifteen statuettes listed by the sculptor in 1901, all of them nude females, 10 inches and under in height and cast using the cire perdue process, particularly suitable for producing small bronzes. Lamenting the fact that his public works were leaving him little time for more imaginative, 'ideal' work, Thornycroft designed these small models partly to indulge his own fancy, but also to provide affordable bronzes for a limited market for 'New Sculpture' and for a public whose taste for such work was uncertain. The present figure, dated 1918, is a cast from the 18 inch model in plaster exhibited by Thornycroft at the Royal Academy in 1917 (no. 1665). The bronze bears the address Melbury Road, London, the location of Moreton House, the Thornycroft family home where Hamo retained a large studio.