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Auction: 7023 - The Glenister Collection of British Coins & other Ancient, English & Foreign Coins & Comm Medals
Lot: 435

Wax study on slate of a portrait of Prince Arthur, by Leonard Charles Wyon, 1850, head right, H.R.H. Prince Arthur 1850 in wax below, white wax, overall diam. 53mm., the wax cracked and repaired Estimate £ 200-300 Wyon made portraits of all seven of the Royal Children in 1850 and a set of medals was produced. The portraits of The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Princess Alice and Princess Helena are all dated August 1850, while those of Prince Arthur and Princess Louise are dated September 1850. The seventh portrait, of Prince Alfred, is also dated 1850, but no month is given. Prince Arthur (1850-1942), Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, was born on 1 May 1850 and so was less than four months old when he ´sat´ for his first portrait. A set of seven wax models of the royal children was sold in the Leonard Wyon sale at Sotheby, 12 December 1901 lot 134. The set reappeared in the Murdoch sale, Sotheby 14-16 December 1904, lot 1006, and in 1924 it was purchased by the British Museum. In his artlcle ´A group of drawings by Leonard Wyon´ in The Medal no.31, 1997, Philip Attwood states ´The fact that the wax of Arthur differs from the others, in that it is not inscribed and is on thicker slate, suggests that it was executed at a different time. It is likely, therefore, that the other six were modelled at some point in the first four months of 1850, and that Arthur was added in after his birth on May 1 that year´. The appearance of this damaged wax, with the name of the sitter and the date in neat thin wax lettering below the bust in exactly the same manner as the others however, suggests that the British Museum in fact has a ´replacement´ and this is the original. Presumably Leonard Wyon himself made the replacement, but could not bear to throw the broken original away.

Sold for
£500