Albert Toftthe Mother British Old Bronze Sculpture Dark Brown Patina Albert Toft Original1901
Sofia, Bulgaria
£6,803 per item
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Item details
Height
37.0 cm
Width
19.0 cm
Depth
21.0 cm
Wear conditions
Good
Wear conditions
Excellent
Shows little to no signs of wear and tear.
Good
May show slight traces of use in keeping with age. Most vintage and antique items fit into this condition.
Average
Likely to show signs of some light scratching and ageing but still remains in a fair condition.
Apparent Wear and Tear
Visible signs of previous use including scratches, chips or stains.
Please refer to condition report, images or make a seller enquiry for additional information.
Description
"The Mother" is a bronze sculpture by the English professor of modeling and sculpture Albert Toft.
About the artwork
The bronze is covered with dark brown patina.
The artwork is a masterpiece made in 1901
His artworks are owned in collection around the world.
Dear art lovers,
if you like the art of prof. Albert Toft, please click the link to follow this artist and art gallery Snow Pearl to discover all our artists and beautiful artworks.
Thank you so much! we appreciate your interest to our work.
Professor Albert Toft,
his cast of Maternity is known to us in only one other version, also in gilt bronze, in the Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery in Wales (acquired in 1943). Maternity closely relates to the high relief bronze of Charity on the pedestal of the monument to Queen Victoria erected in Nottingham in 1905, and they were probably conceived around the same time. The composition with a baby held on each arm and the arrangement of her robe and looped hair are almost identical save in the details. Maternity numbers amongst Toft's well received ideal works that included Fate-Led (1890) and The Spirit of Contemplation (1901). They show the confluence of the Lantéri-Dalou tradition which Toft learnt at the National Art Training School, with the symbolist overtones of Toft's friend Alfred Gilbert. Londoner's will identify Toft as the author of the iconic Royal Fusiliers Monument in the City and art students with his enduring book Modelling and Sculpture (1911).
Albert Toft was born in Handsworth, then in Staffordshire, and now a suburb of Birmingham. His parents were Charles Toft (1832–1909) and Rosanna Reeves. His father was a modeller at the Wedgwood pottery.
Toft trained at Wedgwood's pottery, and attended art schools in Hanley and Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1881 he won a scholarship to study sculpture at the South Kensington Schools under Professor Édouard Lantéri.[3] He received silver medals in his second and third years.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Toft as one of the major figures of "New Sculpture" following on from William Hamo Thornycroft and George Frampton. Toft described his work as 'Idealist' but he also said of himself that "to become an idealist you must necessarily first be a realist."
From 1885 onwards Toft exhibited at the Royal Academy and some of his most notable works exhibited at the Royal Academy included Fate-Led (1890, now at Walker Art Gallery), The Sere and Yellow Leaf (1892), Spring (1897, now at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), The Spirit of Contemplation (1901; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle) and The Metal Pourer (1915). In 1915 his sculpture The Bather was purchased using the Royal Academy's Chantrey Fund. His 1888 bust of Gladstone for the National Liberal Club was modelled from life and acclaimed as one of the best. In 1900 Toft received a bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.
He created monuments to Queen Victoria for Leamington Spa, Nottingham, and South Shields, and to Edward VII in Birmingham and Warwick. He designed the coronation medal of George V and Queen Mary (1911) and a statuette of W. S. Penley playing Charley's Aunt for Royal Doulton (1913). He also published a book, Modelling and Sculpture in 1911, which was reprinted in 1949.
He made a series of war memorials, starting with the South African War Memorial in Cardiff (1910), and then many after the First World War, including the Royal Fusiliers War Memorial in London (1922), and four statues for the Birmingham Hall of Memory (1923–24).
In 1891 Toft was elected to the Art Workers Guild and in 1938 he was elected a fellow to the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He died in Worthing.
Condition report:
Good
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Cancellations and Returns
Last updated: 24th March 2025
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