Lot 780: Sir John Steell RSA, 1804-1891,

A bronze statue of Sir Walter Scott,
depicted seated, holding a book, at his feet is a deer hound, on a naturalistic rectangular shaped plinth, signed indistinctly, 42cm high.

Steell and his family moved from his birth place in Aberdeen to Edinburgh in 1805. At the end of a wood carving apprenticeship Steell went to study sculpture in Rome. Upon his return to Britain Steell gained a number of high profile commissions including his sculpture of Sir Walter Scott, executed for the Scott monument, Princes Street, Edinburgh, of which this piece is a replica. Another version of this sculpture is situated in Central Park, New York.

Literature: Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Peter Mcewan, 1988.