Auctioneers Sworders will be presiding over the sale of the private collection of art dealer Ken Bolan on September 24.
It is entitled Ken Bolan: Nature Follows Form and features 400 lots from the legendary dealer who bought and sold antiques and design objects for more than 50 years.
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(Image: Sworders) The Monkey and the Dolphin mosaic – based on the Aesop fable – leads the sale with an estimated value of £300k to £500k.
Elisabeth Frink – who died in 1993 aged 62 – was brought up in Great Thurlow, near Bury St Edmunds close to RAF Mildenhall and Lakenheath air bases.
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The mosaic panel by Elisabeth Frink was designed around 1987 and once adorned the swimming pool of Woolland House at her Dorset country estate.
Mr Bolan first met sculptor when she visited his shop in Bath in 1986.
“At that time, I had just begun buying Swedish painted furniture which she absolutely adored,” he said.
“Over the next few months, after discovering my old brewery in Gillingham, she bought numerous painted items from me, and we developed a close friendship.”
Following Frink’s death in 1993, the art dealer assisted her son, Lan, with the sale of the furnishings at Woolland, and later made the new owners an offer on the mosaic.
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It was subsequently professionally removed, restored and mounted on a 4.34 x 3.09m aluminium corrugated framework to allow the mosaic to be laid back into a swimming pool or positioned upright as an artwork.
It is thought to be the only mosaic Frink created and among the largest pieces she ever made. ‘
“It’s all original. All the work you see is her work. We haven’t had to rebuild it,” said Mr Bolan.
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Sworders is based at Stansted Mountfitchet near Stansted airport.