What may be a record price for the Poole artist Guy Sydenham was achieved at Cottees of Wareham when a stoneware model of a baby rhinoceros sold for £5000 at their latest sale.
The 10in (25cm) figure with a small
'fleabite' chip to the ear', was part of a very small series
produced by the artist with his associate at Poole, Beatrice
Bolton, in the late 1970s.
The vendor and her husband were
holidaying in Dorset in 1979 when they saw both this naturalistic
model and its mother on display at the Poole factory. She had
wanted to buy the larger model but had settled for her 'offspring',
priced then at £180.
Just one other rhino calf is known to
exist and its owner was determined to make a pair, but an attempt
to reunite them was thwarted by a local collector of the works of
Guy Sydenham prepared to go well above the £800-1200
estimate.
The whereabouts of the Sydenham-Bolton
rhino cow - on display in a photograph showing the Queen and Prince
Philip at the Poole factory in 1979, shown below - remains unknown,
but it seems in the wake of the sale on May 19 it may soon come to
light.
Auctioneer John Condie was remaining
tight-lipped but was hoping to find it in time for the firm's
November Poole Pottery sale.
The buyer's premium was 15%
Above: the photograph showing the Queen
and Prince Philip at the Poole factory in 1979.
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