Bust

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

This over life-sized marble bust depicts Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled the Roman empire for just a few short months in the year 193AD. His fleeting 66-day reign took place during the tumultuous period known as ‘The Year of the Five Emperors’ and came to a grisly end when he was murdered by a common soldier.

Single buyer secures two key works by one of the main sculptors of the Enlightenment.

Two rediscovered marble busts by the French 18th century sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) are to be offered in Cottone Auctions’ next sale in Geneseo on March 23.

Black Rock Galleries in Greenwich, Connecticut received bids up to $388,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) for a bronze it believes is Buste de Saint Jean-Baptiste, a previously lost lifetime cast by Rodin.

A little-known Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) sculpture of the British actress Sandra Dorne took an estimate-topping £11,000 at HRD Auction Rooms (20% buyer’s premium) on the Isle of Wight.

Less well-known than other daring young women in their flying machines, Peggy Salaman, or rather a bronze bust of her, emerged from a Mayfair basement to take off in a Suffolk saleroom.

A philosopher of mathematics, the human consciousness and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was described by his teacher Bertrand Russell as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived”.

ATG's weekly selection of items on sale at auctions and dealerships.

Bailly et Beuret’s next auction series takes place in the Swiss city on June 21. On offer are over 460 lots divided between four catalogues and covering works from the 14th to 19th centuries, Swiss and contemporary art.

Bronze busts of the Queen and Prince Philip from the Oxfordshire studio of Czech émigré sculptor Franta Belsky (1921-2000) took top honours at Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) in Oxford on April 25.