LONDON.- A complete signed artist’s proof set of The Book of Love by the American artist Robert Indiana is one of the star items at Bonhams Prints and Multiples sale in London on 9 December. It is estimated at £25,000-35,000.

Printed in 1977, this is one of 50 artist’s proof sets of one of Indiana’s best known images, presenting the word LOVE in different colour combinations. The set is made up of 12 screenprints and 12 embossments all signed and numbered IL/L.

Also carrying an estimate of £25,000-35,000 but from a very different era is a fine impression of The Great Jewish Bride, one of Rembrandt’s most sought after etchings. Executed in 1635, the work gained its title in the 18th century when it was linked with the artist’s Little Jewish Bride now thought to depict Saint Catherine. Although Rembrandt did live in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam at the time and often used his neighbours as sitters, it is likely that the model for the etching was, in fact, his first wife Saskia. Rather than showing a contemporary Jewish bride it probably portrays Esther, the Jewish heroine credited with saving her people from destruction in the Old Testament book of the same name.

This sale also features a wide selection of high quality works from the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.

Realised in 1930, The Eight by Cyril Edward Power is a dramatic study of rowers in action using the curves of the athletes’ bodies and the oars to convey the motion of the boat through the water. Produced in an edition of 50 this print is signed, titled and numbered by the artist and estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Other works in the sale by Grosvenor School artists include the 1933 linocut Sledgehammers - estimated at £15,000-20,000 - by Sybil Andrews in which she forcefully conveys the muscularity of the workers and the power of the hammers themselves as they swing through the air. Andrews’ 1934 work Fall of the Leaf carries an estimate of £20,000-30,000 as does Gust of Wind by the Australian printmaker Ethel Spowers. .