Anna Burnside
Head of Sale
Lot 52
A good Vauxhall group of Hercules and the Nemean lion, circa 1756-58
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Jim Peake
Head of Department
Fergus Gambon
Director
A good Vauxhall group of Hercules and the Nemean lion, circa 1756-58
Hercules with his right foot resting on the back of the beast, its tail curled around his knee, his hands forcing open the mouth of the ferocious animal, his costume picked out in puce and pale yellow and painted with floral sprays, on a shaped scrolled base, 14.8cm high
Footnotes
Provenance
Mr and Mrs James McGregor Stewart Collection, Sotheby's, 13 November 1973, lot 24 (as Longton Hall)
Simon Spero exhibition, 1989, no.43 (as Longton Hall)
Barbara Leake Collection, Bonhams, 12 March 2008, lot 78
Literature
Massey, Roger, 'Vauxhall Porcelain Figures', ECC Trans, Vol.25, 2014, p.13, fig.26
White, Mary, People at the Whites' House, Vol.5, 2024, p.220
This animated group depicts the first of the Twelve Labours of Hercules, although the figure has been variously identified as Samson, David, and Hercules. The design source is unknown, but may be a bronze by Giambologna, without the usual intermediate Meissen source. Another depiction of Hercules grappling with the Nemean lion can be seen on the Chelsea teapot, lot 58 in this sale.
A very similar group was sold by Bonhams on 29 September 2020, lot 155. One is in the British Museum (inv. no.1887,0307,IV.6) and another in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. no.1988.927). Three examples are recorded with separate plinths, including one from The Rous Lench Collection sold by Sotheby's on 1 July 1986, lot 300, see Roger Massey, 2014, p.13.