LONDON.- The first auctions of the year at
Summers Place Auctions take place live on 26th March 2024 followed by the sealed bid sale on the 27th March. They include an eclectic mix of lots that the auction house in Billingshurst has become well-known for - ranging from dinosaur footprints to Modern British sculptures with a wide range of garden statuary and even an historic barn frame in between.
Highlight of the auction is a pair of rare Portland stone groups of a nymph and satyr by Charles Sargeant Jagger (1885-1934). They are each three and a half metres high and were created for Melchett Court, Hampshire in 1927 and stayed in the Melchett family, although in different locations, until 1947 and a year later Gilbert Beale bought them at auction for Beale Park, where they stayed until 2000. They are now expected to sell for £140,000 - £220,000.
Jagger was born in Yorkshire, in 1907 and was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1914, but before he could take up his scholarship in Rome, war was declared and Jagger made a considerable personal sacrifice by instead enlisting in the Artists Rifles. He was wounded twice and awarded the Military cross in recognition of his valour. Whilst he was convalescing a friend at the Royal College of Art told him that the British War Memorials Committee were about to employ sculptors and between 1921 and 1923 he completed six war memorials and started on his most well-known work, the Royal Artillery memorial at Hyde Park Corner. Among his circle of influential patrons were Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Stephen Courtauld and Sir Alfred Mond, the first Lord Melchett and his son Henry. He was also commissioned to do a statuette of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, which was considered one of his finest works.
Amongst the many commissions the Mond family gave Jagger, were the sculptures on Imperial Chemical House. This building, a well-known London landmark on the River Thames at Millbank. At around the same time Jagger was commissioned by Lord Melchett to carve this pair of Portland stone groups of nymphs and satyrs for his home, Melchett Court, Hampshire. The Melchett Court satyrs and nymphs are the only known work by Jagger in which he explores this romantic classical approach with its mildly erotic overtones in a large-scale three dimensional way.
Another highlight is an historic and spectacular timber frame. Blue Barn was the last original building that was part of the farm which now forms the iconic St Georges Hill Estate at Weybridge. It has been drawn, photographed, and numbered before being carefully dismantled for re-erection and expected to sell for £60,000 - £100,000.
The barn had been preserved and used as a great hall adjacent to an early St Georges Hill Estate house which was built on the site of the original farmhouse in the early 1900s. This new use for the barn protected the frame when other similar farm barns were becoming less and less used and being allowed to fall into disrepair. And they inserted windows which are a particularly pleasing feature.
The frame is 10.92m long by 9.55m wide including the aisle which is 2.62m wide. The overall height of the frame to the apex of the roof is 7.30m.
At the lower end of the estimates are the footprints of long extinct creatures preserved in stone. Although not fossils in the general sense, they have a magic and intrigue of their own, as they reveal the actual activity of prehistoric animals. They are known as ‘trace’ fossils due to the fact that they are not parts of the animal itself (bones etc.) preserved in stone. Among the lots included in this sale are several footprints of the well-known dinosaur Iguanodon, estimates range from £500 - £800, and another that looks as if it was left by the rare Polacanthus. Most excitingly, however, is a footprint that seems to have been left by a specimen of a Baryonix (est. £400 - £600), the first fossil of it was found in Surrey and although they are found in Horsham Stone, footprints are very rare.
Among other Natural History lots, are two framed typography drawers containing over 200 marine curiosities from the early 20th century (est. £4,000 - £6,000) and a massive Jasper freeform (est. £3,500 - £4,800).
The auction also includes a Rosso Verona wellhead with cast iron overthrow, which was once owned by the Italian Honorary Vice Consul in Guernsey, Marchese Peruzzi, who was from an old Florentine family closely allied with the Medici’ family. After his death, it was sold at auction in circa 1971 and is now estimated at £6,000 - £10,000. Other lots include a rare Dutch or German lead cistern from the mid 18th century (est. £6,000 - £10,000); a large pair of fireclay urns on pedestals by J & M Craig, Kilmarnock from the late 19th century (est. £8,000 - £12,000); a pair of Coalbrookdale Nasturtium pattern cast iron seats, from the late 19th century (est. £6,000 - £10,000) and a monumental Portland stone clock, dated from 1956, attributed to Charles Wheeler. The clock was removed from the Anglo American and DeBeers building, London which was refurbished in the 1970’s (est. £5,000 - £8,000).
There are several important Contemporary sculptures included in this auction, including a Running Cheetah Pair bronze by Dylan Lewis (est. £60,000 - £80,000); an almost 3 metre wide wall bronze by Alfred Horace (Gerry) Gerard (est. £20,000 - £30,000); two Isaac Kahn bronzes of dancers, each estimated at £15,000 - £25,000 and a bronze by Milton Hebald (1917-2015), Neptune’s Party, carrying an estimate of £4,000-6,000. Hebald has produced many sculptures on display throughout the US notably at JFK airport, Central Park New York and for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
