A BRONZE FIGURE OF VENUS, PROBABLY FRENCH 17TH / 18TH CENTURY

of Venus Pudica type but looking over her right shoulder, modelled in contrapposto, her lowered right arm clutching a drapery, her raised left hand shielding one breast, on a naturalistic base, dark patinated, on a square Rosso Levanto marble plinth bronze

27cm high, 36cm high overall

Provenance: Gerald Coke (1907-1990) of Jenkyn Place, Bentley, Hampshire; to his son, the vendor, John Coke. Gerald Coke was a very successful business man and collector. He is perhaps best known for the Coke Handel Collection, an outstanding assembly of 'Handeliana' left to the nation (allocated to the Foundling Museum), his collection of James Giles decorated Worcester porcelain (bequeathed to the Worcester Porcelain Museum) and for the famous gardens he and his wife created at Jenkyn Place. Additionally he had collected Regency furniture during the war, as well as Renaissance bronzes, apparently turning from the latter because of their increasing cost (The Independent, 1 September 1995). Much of the furniture and furnishings from Jenkyn Place were sold at the auction 'The Coke Collection from Jenkyn Place', Christie's, London, 7 October 1996.

This figure is probably from a model produced by one of the sculptors working for Louis XIV's court such as Corneille van Cleve (1645-1732) or Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743).

Part proceeds to benefit The Grange Festival