POSSIBLY BY CHARLES CUMBERWORTH, MID 19TH CENTURY

A handwritten inscription to the underside identifies these bronzes as possibly by Charles Cumberworth (1811-1852). Although previously unrecorded models, they closely relate to Cumberworth's classical and allegorical subjects inspired by Falconet's work of the 1750s and '60s. Cumberworth was the son of an English officer and a Frenchwoman and brought to Paris as an infant. He studied under Pradier and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and exhibited at the Salon from 1829 to 1848. He won the Prix de Rome in 1842 but was disqualified when it was discovered he was not a Frenchman.