Carving-out funds
A BRIDLINGTON sculptor’s remarkable bequest to Marie Curie is to go under the hammer in an auction on Friday to raise funds for the hospice charity.
Helen Skelton left the charity 55 abstract wooden sculptures, ranging in size from table-top to almost 6ft high.
Faced with one of the more unusual bequests the charity has received, officers enlisted the help of auctioneers David Duggleby to advise on how best to sell the works of art for the benefit of the charity’s work.
Will Duggleby, the managing director of the auctioneers, said: “Helen Skelton’s story is both surprising and inspiring. While she painted and drew throughout her life she was almost 50 when she turned her hand to sculpture in the early 1980s.
“Her first solo exhibition was at Sewerby Hall in 1998 and another memorable local success followed when she won the sculpture prize in the Ferens Gallery Open Exhibition of June 2000. Her piece ‘Mother & Child,’ inspired by the birth of her first grandchild, sold during the exhibition.
“Helen described her depictions of people, animals and wildlife as ‘abstract based on reality.’ In a BBC radio interview she revealed that she drew inspiration from the wood that she saw when walking in the East Yorkshire countryside and that she was guided in her designs by the shape and appearance of the wood with which she was working.”
The 55 sculptures, gifted to the charity following Helen’s death last year, are to be sold in 20 lots in Friday’s Decorative, Antiques & Collectors Sale at Duggleby’s
Vine Street Salerooms in Scarborough.
Will added: “The sale of the Skelton Bequest has been attracting considerable interest ahead of the auction, which is hardly surprising given that this is the largest collection of Helen’s work to be seen at one time since the Sewerby Hall exhibition a quarter of a century ago and it does include many favourite pieces that she kept for her studio and home.
“We’re clearly delighted to be involved in aiding such a worthy cause and we’re hopeful that the sale will raise well into four figures for Marie Curie.”
Meanwhile, talking sculpture, the 296-lot auction also includes a small collection of press photographs of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, plus several Royal Christmas cards signed “Charles” – and a Great Train Robbery “Wanted” poster.
The full catalogue is available via the firm’s website at davidduggleby.com with viewing taking place at the Vine Street Salerooms all week including on Friday morning from 9am until the start of the auction at 11am.