Lot 348: Charles Robert Knight (American, 1874-1953) Triceratops, 1915

Charles Robert Knight (American, 1874-1953)
Triceratops, 1915
signed and date 'Chas R Knight, 1915', titled and inscribed
probably produced at Roman Bronze Works Inc
bronze 18.5cm across.

Provenance:
Estate of Emma Fordyce MacRae.

Charles Robert Knight was probably best known for his influential depictions of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals at the beginning of the 20th Century. He was hailed as 'one of the great popularisers of the prehistoric past', influencing a whole generation of the museum public and his work was often used to illustrate books on dinosaurs published in the first half of the 20th Century.

He wrote on the Triceratops 'in spite of its formidable mien, [it] was perfectly harmless...and not aggressive for all its great horn and armored bony frill and...The spiny projections on the head...no doubt saved the peaceful, clumsy brute from early extinction.' (Charles R. Knight, Before the Dawn of History, 1935)