A carved fire surround from Sir Winston Churchill’s drawing room

A bronze portrait of Sir Winston Churchill by Rufus Martin, 2023 This head and shoulders bronze bust is instantly recognizable as Sir Winston Churchill. He is wearing a British Warm greatcoat with epaulettes and has a half-smoked cigar in the left hand resting on his hip. His right hand is raised in his trade mark V-for-Victory salute. Signed ‘Rufus Martin 1/12’. Sir Winston Churchill (1874 –1965) was a British politician, army officer and writer. He was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, when he led Britain to victory in the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill represented five constituencies during his career as a Member of Parliament. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, for most of his career he was a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955, but from 1904 to 1924 was a member of the Liberal Party. This portrait of Churchill by Rufus Martin is striking for its juxtaposition of this famous historical subject and the free and contemporary choice of presentation. Churchill’s tenure during the Second World War infused the nation with calm and confidence, providing the British people with strong leadership during its darkest hours. Martin succeeds in portraying Churchill’s unshakeable belief in a successful outcome for the Allies through his defiant stance, unwavering gaze and Victory V gesture. Together with the recognizable “Bulldog” facial features and broad shoulders, this bust captures the subject in terms of character as well as being an accurate physical portrait . Rufus Martin trained at Wimbledon College of the Arts, London, though his aptitude for 3D design and sculpture was apparent from a very young age. His mother, a portrait painter, showed him the portrait sculptures of Augusta Savage, Jacob Epstein and Augustine Rodin, which inspired him to create a bust of his late mentor, Michael Howells. He sculpts ‘intriguing individuals, always hoping to capture some element of their past or current struggles and to create something for the good of the community they inhabit and wherever possible for posterity’ – an ambition he has most successfully fulfilled with this powerful portrait. After leaving college in 2017, with first class honours, Martin has won many prestigious prizes including the Tiranti Prize at the FACE, the Signature Art Award, the Chelsea Arts Club show for ‘Amy’, the True Blue Show, the Salmagundi Open Show, New York, Green & Stone Summer Show, the Chelsea Arts Society Summer Show, RBA Rising Stars, the Royal Cambrian Academy Open, the Binny Mathews & Sons joint show, The Next Big Thing and has been published in the Kings House...

Sir Harold Dudley Clayton’s Hydraulic Steam Lifeboat: City of Glasgow, 1894. This fine builder’s presentation scale model has a gilt brass funnel, polished brass rudder, capstan, anchor, binnacle and fittings with side grab ropes. The hull is painted in RNLI blue and red, with a pink keel. It is raised on a turned brass support within an ebonised glazed case on a stand and has a presentation plaque inscribed ‘Hydraulic Steam Lifeboat City of Glasgow’ Built For the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, by R & H Green, Blackwall Yard, London, 1894′. Provenance: Sir Harold Dudley Clayton. The following pages are dedicated to the substantial and fascinating archive of Sir Harold Dudley Clayton. This includes the lifeboat model above, over 100 yacht designs and naval architects’ drawings, photograph albums, photographic glass slides and a model of his yacht Coquette. Steam-powered lifeboats. Earlier in the 19th century steam had transformed Britain’s industrial landscape through the development of steamships and the railways. But tending a coal-fired boiler in a boat that is pitching and rolling in heavy seas would not have been straightforward. Sixty years after the idea was first mooted by Sir William Hillary and after extensive trials, the first steam-cum-sail boat Duke of Northumberland went into service at Harwich Lifeboat Station in September 1890. The hydraulic steam-driven lifeboat used...

Carved oak fire surround, the rectangular mantle above carved detail. to the acanthus capitals flanking two original bevelled mirrors. Supposed on bo...

A Victorian Arts and Crafts pine fire surround carved with stylised flowers and foliage to the frieze. This beautiful fireplace is relatively petite in size, making it suitable for a...