Property from the Starr Collection
A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF ROBERT BOYLE, LATE 18TH CENTURY
Lot Closed
October 21, 03:45 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Starr Collection
A WEDGWOOD AND BENTLEY VERY LARGE BLACK BASALT BUST OF ROBERT BOYLE, LATE 18TH CENTURY
modeled wearing an open loose shirt, raised on a separate socle base, the reverse edge of the shoulder impressed in uppercase BOYLE, traces of two further impressed BOYLE marks, the underside of the socle base impressed uppercase WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY mark
height 18 in.
45.7 cm
Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc. New York, December 1, 1977, lot 67
A similar bust was in the Bernheim Collection, offered at Replica Shoes -Parke Bernet, February, 1972, lot 92. A large jasper titled portrait medallion of Boyle is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, ref. no. 1912.1026.
The plaster cast for this bust was supplied to Wedgwood by Hoskins & Grant, and is first listed in the Wedgwood & Bentley catalogue of 1774 (see Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, Vol. II, England 1989, p. 750). The model was taken from the 1733 portrait by John Michael Rysbrack. Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was an Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor. He is regarded today as the first modern chemist, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method.