A rare marble sculpture will return to auction in England next year after it spent over half a century as a garden ornament in a rural home. The bust of Daphne, sculpted by Harriet Hosmer, a U.S. sculptor prominent in the 1800s, was discovered during a routine house valuation in the Cotswolds, a rural area in south central England. “I spotted the bust in the garden,” Thomas Jenner-Fust told CTV News via email. Despite being covered in moss and lichen, Jenner-Fust, who specializes in antique valuation of art and historical objects, recognized the bust as a piece by a woman “widely regarded as the first professional female sculptor in the U.S.” The bust has since been acquired by Chorley’s Auctioneers, an auction house in Gloucester in southwest England, where Jenner-Fust works as director. The bust first went on sale during a September auction and will return back to the auction stage in March, according to Jenner-Fust. The bust is an “exceptionally rare work,” he said, adding that only three other verified versions are known to survive today, all of which are held at art museums in the U.S. “The inscription, the quality and the laurel leaves at its base all pointed to it being an authentic work by Harriet Hosmer,” he said. The homeowners, Jenner-Fust added, had “absolutely no idea” of the bust’s history or how it came to be in their possession. Hosmer, who was born in Massachusetts in 1830, was considered a feminist icon and “trailblazer” in a field dominated by men. She was also openly gay, despite same-sex relationships being publicly condemned and, in some places, illegal. The bust was her first independent work, created after she moved to Italy. It depicts the Greek mythology figure Daphne. According to myth, Daphne had rejected the idea of marriage and, while fleeing the advances of the Greek sun god Apollo, prayed to her river god father. “He transformed her into a laurel tree to save her,” Jenner-Fust stated. He added that the inscription on the statue reads, in Latin, “Harriet Hosmer me fecit Romae.” The phrase translates as “Harriet Hosmer made me in Rome.” For the last 70 years, the bust had served as a garden ornament. “It was a wonderful surprise for (the homeowners) to discover not only its history, but also its value,” Jenner-Fust said. “It’s a reminder that some of the world’s most historically important objects aren’t always tucked away in stately homes or museums - sometimes they’re hiding in plain sight.”
