A PLASTER BUST OF A ROMAN WARRIOR
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A PLASTER BUST OF A ROMAN WARRIOR

MANUFACTURED BY BRUCCIANI & CO., 19TH CENTURY, AFTER THE ANTIQUE

Details
A PLASTER BUST OF A ROMAN WARRIOR
Manufactured by Brucciani & Co., 19th century, after the Antique
Depicted looking to sinister, in an elaborately cast helmet of griffins and anthemia, surmounted by a sphinx issuing feathers, on a turned waisted socle, the reverse stamped 'D. BRUCCIANI & CO. LONDON', the socle stamped '2264'
37¼ in. (94.5 cm.) high
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis
Sale room notice
The bust's design is derived from J. H. W. Tischbein's portrait of Achilles from his 'Homerischen Helden' (Homer's Heroes [from the Iliad]) of circa 1800. Seven of Tischbein's [eight] drawings, including the head of Achilles were sold at Christie's, New York, 22 January 2003, lot 226 ($22,705). The bust is almost certainly a copy of one attributed to Bertel Thorvaldsen (d. 1844) in the Palazzo Reale, Naples (A. Friedrich et al, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), Petersberg 2001, p. 127, fig. 15).

Lot Essay

The sculptor Domenico Brucciani (b. 1815) opened workshops in Covent Garden in the late 1830s and was celebrated for his Galleria in the 1860s. Apart for the supply of plaster casts, he also provided models for Messrs. Elkington and Co.'s electrotypes. In 1922 the Brucciani Company's moulds were taken over by the Board of Education through the Victoria & Albert Museum.

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