Sculpture with Royal links is sold for £1million

A BRONZE figure copied from an original created for the tomb of Queen Victoria’s eldest grandson has been sold by a Cornish family for £1million.

The 36-inch high statue of St George has stood in the house at Werrington Park, near Launceston, for 125 years.

It was made by leading sculpton of the day Sir Alfred Gilbert – creator of the Eros Statue in Picadilly Circus – as one of a handful of copies of his original St George which was created for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence, who died from influenza, aged 28 in 1892.

ABRONZE figure of St George which has stood in a grand Cornish country house for 125 years has sold at auction for £1 million.

The cast had been commissioned from leading sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert by John Charles Williams, of Werrington Park, near Launceston, in 1895 and had stood in the house, still owned by the Williams family, ever since.

The bronze, discovered by specialists from Bonhams auctioneers during a valuation visit to Werrington Park, was of a design by Gilbert for the statue of St George commissioned for the tomb of the Duke of Clarence in

St George’s Chapel in Windsor. The Duke, Queen Victoria’s eldest grandson and second in line to the throne, had died of influenza less than a week after his 28th birthday.

Gilbert, the premier English sculptor of his day, capitalised on the appeal of the St George model by accepting commissions’ to make copies for private clients. A small number of these have survived, each measuring 20 in (50cm) but the Werrington bronze is almost twice as high at 36in (90cm).

Research by the head of European sculpture and works of art Michael Lake identified the work as a commission from John Charles Williams in 1895, the year the smaller original was installed at Windsor Castle.

Williams had hoped to own four double-size replica figures, but the other three, representing the patron saints of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, were never realised. “Being involved in identifying this wonderful statue and bringing it to market has been truly exciting. I am delighted that it sold for such an astonishing sum,” said Mr Lake.

The descendant of a large copper mining family which made its 18th and 19th century fortune in mining, smelting, banking, manufacturing, property and other business interests, JC Williams devoted his life to public service and philanthropy and was briefly MP for Truro.

He was Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall for 18 years, chairman of Cornwall County Counil and chairman of many organisations. With extensive interests in gardens and horticulture, he was the major backer of Forrest and Wilson’s plant hunting expeditions to the Himalayas. A large number of plants continue to bear his name.

With his mother still living at Caerhays when his father died in 1880, JC married his cousin Mary Christian Williams, of St Day, the 11th child of Sir Frederick Williams, and they bought Werrington Park in 1885. It was a Jacobean mansion with magnificent greenhouses which only further inspired his interest in gardens and the propagation of plants. Caerhays became their main residence from 1887. John Charles and Mary Christian had five sons: Charles, MP for Tavistock and then Torquay for more than 30 years until the mid1950s, John and Robert who were both killed in the First World War in the Dardanelles and at the Battle of Loos, Alfred Martyn who served in the Royal Navy, survived Gallipoli and became MP for North Cornwall, and Peter Michael Williams, of Burncoose, a keen supporter of Redruth, Cornwall and Middlesex Cricket. There was also a daughter, May, a spinster who lived in Staplegrove, Taunton, for much of her life.

The previous high for a work by Gilbert was a modern re-cast of Anteros, the figure which tops the Shaftesbury memorial in Piccadilly Circus. It was sold for £210,000 in 2019. The Williams family still occupy Werrington Park but did not wish to comment on the sale.