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Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 1
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 2
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 3
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 4
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 5
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 6
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 7
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 8
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 9
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 10
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 11
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 12
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 13
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 14
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 15
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 16
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 17
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 18
Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907 cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton image 19
Lot 87AR,TP

Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907
cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton

Decorative Arts: Through the Ages
13 – 14 July 2022, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £107,400 inc. premium

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Edwin Whitney-Smith (British, 1880-1952): 'The Baltic Fountain', an important and impressive patinated and polished bronze figural fountain commissioned for the Baltic Shipping Exchange, London, 1907

cast by the A. B. Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton
the female nude probably representing a sea nymph, holding aloft a model of a galleon in her upheld hands, standing on a shell and rockwork plinth issuing four sea serpent head spouts, signed and dated within the cast E. Whitney Smith, 1907, above a circular dished basin, raised on an octagonal open plinth cast with seaweed and foundry inscription A. B. Burton, Founder, Thames Ditton, the spreading circular base cast with sea scallop shells above a capitalised Latin presentation inscription to the outer border translating as 'This fountain was given by Edward Power and Edward John Power, father and son, well known/distinguished merchants (67) who for many years were members of the Baltic co/council/consigliore and who were its leaders 1907.', 281cm high x 136cm diameter approximately

Footnotes

Bonhams is delighted to offer the Baltic Exchange fountain in our 'Fine Decorative Arts: Through the Ages' sale.

The fountain, which formerly sat in the lobby of the Exchange's headquarters at 38 St Mary Axe, London however cannot be housed in the new designs of the building.

Earlier this year the sale of the fountain was postponed while alternative options were investigated. One of these options was to donate the fountain to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. However, it was then concluded that the piece was 'outside the Museum's collecting remit'.

The amount raised will go towards funding a new Baltic Exchange lifeboat at Salcombe for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI).

'The Royal Academy Exhibition', The Building News, April 26th, 1907, Vol 92, p. 607.
'Of the other works in the Central Hall, Mr. E. Whitney Smith's 'Drinking Fountain,' No. 1664, is the most delicately beautiful, with its fanciful base of seaweed, and its group of large shells surrounding a rock, on which a nude figure stands, holding the hull of an ancient galleon in her outstretched arms;...'

Edwin Whitney-Smith:
Born in Bath, Somerset, Edwin Whitney-Smith studied sculpture at Bath and Bristol Schools of Art. He also worked as assistant to William Harbutt, the inventor of plasticine and headmaster of Bath art school. Smith subsequently moved to London and began exhibiting at the Royal Academy and Paris Salon. Shortly afterwards, he began to hyphenate his name and thereafter styled himself as 'Whitney-Smith'.

He received many commissions for portrait busts as well as creating small statuettes and, as was typical of his generation, a number of war memorials. Amongst his portrait sitters of note were the art critic Adrian Stokes, the painter Sir Alfred Munnings and perhaps also very pertinently given the maritime theme of the offered lot, the Liverpool shipping magnate, Sir William Forwood.

In spite of several Academician proposals by prestigious sculptors and artists of the day during his career (including the sculptors Frederick William Pomeroy, Henry Alfred Pegram and Francis Derwent Wood in 1922 and the artists Samuel John Lamorna Birch and William Russell Flint in 1935), he was unsuccessful in being elected to the Royal Academy although ironically, the renowned sculptor Sir William Reid Dick, who was an early assistant in his studio in the early 1900s went on to secure his own membership two years after Whitney-Smith's death in 1954.

The A. B Burton Foundry, Thames Ditton:
As one of Great Britain's leading firms of bronze founders, the Thames Ditton Foundry operated from 1874 to 1939 under various owners producing numerous fine major statues and monuments. Established by Cox & Sons, a large firm of ecclesiastical furnishing suppliers, it cast ornaments and statues in bronze for sculptors and commercial suppliers. From 1902 to 1933 the firm came under the sole ownership of Arthur Bryan Burton (1860-1933). Originally apprenticed to Cox & Sons, Burton had later opened his own foundry in Kingston but returning in 1897 to become a co-owner with Arthur John Hollinshead. Burton served as a councillor on Surbiton Council, deacon of Surbiton Park Congregational Church, Sunday school teach, benefactor of the Scout Movement and a Special Constable during World War I.

Works of particularly note cast by A. B. Burton from the same period include George Frederic Watts's Physical Energy in Kensington Gardens dating from the same year as the Baltic Exchange fountain, Adrian Jones equestrian statue of the Duke of Cambridge in Whitehall dating from 1909 and the forty-ton Quadriga on the Wellington Arch in Hyde Park Corner dating from 1910-11 which is one of the largest bronzes ever cast in Britain.

The Baltic Exchange:
Baltic Exchange Ltd, a community of hundreds of shipping companies and tracker of maritime transportation markets, was based at 24-28 St Mary Axe in the City of London. The exchange can trace its roots back to 1744 in Threadneedle Street. It was incorporated as a private limited company in 1900.

In the early 20th century the firms main premises designed by Smith and Wimble and completed by George Trollope & Sons were opened in 1903. The building had an impressive and distinctively Cathedral-like trading hall housing an unusual stained glass war memorial completed after the first world war (now in the permanent collection of the National Maritime Museum). The building was subsequently used as a film location for a number of period drama films including Howards End, released in 1992.

In 1992 on 10 April, the facade and parts of the building were badly damaged by an IRA bomb attack which very sadly saw three people killed and ninety one injured. The fountain suffered some minor damage in the attack but was later re-instated in the replacement modern premises which were rebuilt on land adjacent to the original site.

Additional information

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