Ingram Reid
Director
Lot 33AR
Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A.(British, 1930-1993)Horizontal Birdman III 34 cm. (13 3/8 in.) long
19 November 2025, 15:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£12,000 - £18,000
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Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Grace Berry
Associate Specialist
Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A. (British, 1930-1993)
Horizontal Birdman III
signed and numbered 'Frink 8/8' (on the figure's hip)
bronze with a brown patina
34 cm. (13 3/8 in.) long
Conceived in 1964
signed and numbered 'Frink 8/8' (on the figure's hip)
bronze with a brown patina
34 cm. (13 3/8 in.) long
Conceived in 1964
Footnotes
Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy of Arts, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84, 8 February-24 March 1985, cat.no.30 (another cast)
Literature
Edwin Mullins (intro.), The Art of Elisabeth Frink, Lund Humphries, London, 1972, pl.60 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Sarah Kent and Bryan Robertson, Elisabeth Frink, Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, Harpvale Press, Salisbury, 1984, p.160, cat.no.106 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Sarah Kent, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1985
Annette Ratuszniak, Elisabeth Frink: Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries in association with the Frink Estate and Beaux Arts, London, 2013, p.90, cat.no.FCR130 (col.ill., another cast)
The present owner's parents were introduced to Frink by Rhona Stern, a writer and artist from Johannesburg, and her husband Stanley. Stanley Stern was a model for sculptors, including Frink, and it has been speculated that he modelled for the Birdman series from which the present work comes.
On a visit to the U.K. in the 1960s, the present owner's parents visited Frink's studio when she was working on Horizontal Birdman III, and purchased the work on the spot. They found the full, unaltered form so beautiful that they requested the artist left this particular cast as it was. All other traced editions have been mounted by pins fixed to the back and so this presentation is believed to be unique. Frink delivered the cast in person to South Africa on her next visit – a testament to the enduring link between artist and collector.