Sculpture could fetch £300,000
A rare work by one of the 18th century's most celebrated sculptors, which was hidden away in Ecton House for decades, could be knocked down for £300,000 at auction.
The work is an original terracotta bust of the one-time rector of Ecton and distinguished mathematician John Palmer, by Flemish sculptor John Michael Rysbrack.
The auction takes place at Sotheby's in Bond Street on July 14 and it features in the sale of one of the most important private collections to come to the auction house in recent years.
In the sale are works by Turner, Gainsborough and Constable and the bust will be sold alongside a work by another celebrated 18th century sculptor, Louis Roubilliac.
A spokesman for Sotheby's told the Chron: "The Rysbrack bust is certainly very rare indeed.
"We are expecting that it will be sold for between 200,000 and 300,000."
The bust is a preparatory model for the main marble bust, which adorns Palmer's tomb in the village's 12th century church of St Mary Magdalene.
Jo Pearson, wife of the Rev Christopher Pearson, whose parish now includes Ecton, told the Chron the terracotta bust stood for years in Ecton House, which was initially a country house, then used as a rectory and later as a diocesan retreat.
She said the bust's value had been recognised by a rector of Ecton, Canon Trevor Willmott, now Bishop of Dover, who was at the parish from 1983 to 1990.
Mr Pearson told the Chron: "I can remember it being sold by the diocese, probably in the late 1980s, but I cannot recall how much for.
"I do remember there was a lot of jubilation at the time so it must have been quite a lot of money."
John Palmer, who was also a celebrated astronomer, was married to a daughter of the then owner of Ecton Hall and this is likely to be why the bust was placed there.
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