Dreweatts has set a new auction record for the 20th century British sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80). At Donnington Priory on May 24, this 2ft (60cm) pink marble carving, Female nude, right, signed and dated 1928, sold to Cork Street dealership Browse & Darby for £90,000 (£111,600 including premium).
The date is key, made in a period when Skeaping – then ranked among the most promising young sculptors of the day – was married to sculptor Barbara Hepworth.
The couple had met in Florence (winner and runner-up respectively of the British School at Rome Prize for sculpture in 1924) and first exhibited together in 1928 – at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, June 1928, and the Reid and Lefevre Gallery in Glasgow in September. In the latter exhibition Skeaping showed the alabaster head of a Burmese girl carved in white marble which is now in the Tate.