After the antique, a finely modelled and weathered artificial limestone model possibly by Austin and Seeley. Their work was rarely marked, but an illustration in the London firms catalogue of 1844 shows an ""Uffizi Boar"" after the famous antique which is on an integral rectangular plinth. The boar is depicted having been suddenly disturbed from his sleep, half rising, showing his tusks, his ears twitching, his snout sniffing the air trying to detect the source of danger. He is growling as, indeed, this is a dangerous wild animal. This is a copy of the famous boar in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, itself a copy of an antique marble statue found in Rome. It has terrific presence as a figurative work and this example is much enhanced by lots of moss and lichen accumulated over many years of exposure to the elements. Austin and Seeley supplied garden ornaments to many well-known gardens such as Osbourne, Chatsworth, Carlton Towers and Shrublands, to name a few.
Sculptor Felix Austin bought the moulds of an earlier artificial stone business and entered into a partnership with John Seeley in 1840. The pair employed good designers and their own stone was made from a mixture of Portland cement, broken stone, pounded marble and course sand, which 'will not sustain any injury from the severest winter, and, being impervious to wet, is particularly applicable to all kinds of water works'.
Austin died in 1850 but Seeley (born 1789) continued the business, sometimes under both names, sometimes only his own, until his death in about 1870. He was particularly noted for fountains.
English circa 1850. The whole is raised on a contemporary plinth base which can be removed if not required. The plinth base measures 65cm high, depth 87cm, width 138cm. The total height of the boar on the stand 139cm.

Condition
Weathered