Property from the Starr Collection
A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OFTHE POET AND PLAYWRIGHT BEN JOHNSON, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Lot Closed
October 21, 03:46 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Starr Collection
A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OFTHE POET AND PLAYWRIGHT BEN JOHNSON, LATE 18TH CENTURY
modeled wearing a doublet and shirt collar, raised on a separate socle base, the reverse of the shoulder with impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD, letters RK, the lower edge with uppercase JOHNSON, the underside of the socle with uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark
height 17⅝ in.
44.7 cm
The Milton Milestone Collection of early Wedgwood Pottery, Replica Shoes Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, April 6, 1976, lot 217
Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, December 1, 1977, lot 64
Another example is in the Manchester Museum, illustrated in Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, London, 1989, Vol. I, p. 455, who notes that the plaster cast was supplied by Hoskins & Grant and that the bust is first listed in the Wedgwood and Bentley catalogue of 1774 (see Reilly, Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, Vol. II, England 1989, p. 750).