Never-before-seen carving by Eric Gill offered at Bonhams Modern and British Art Sale
(Artdaily.org)

A major carving – never-before-seen in public – by master sculptor Eric Gill (1882-1940) leads Bonhams Modern British and Irish Sale on Wednesday 12 June in London. The sculpture, Girl with Comb in her Hair, carved circa 1928, has an estimate of £200,000-300,000. It was commissioned in 1928 as a 21st-birthday present for Desmond Flower, the son of Sir Newman Flower, whose publishing house Cassell & Co was at the time preparing a volume of Gill’s essays for publication. Girl with Comb in Her Hair has been in the family since it was made. Although it was known to exist – it is mentioned in the memoirs of Desmond Flower and in Robert Speaight’s The Life of Eric Gill – it had only ever been seen in private. Gill is best known as a sculptor – his Prospero and Ariel were made for BBC Broadcasting House in London in 1932 – but the typefaces he invented have perhaps been as influential, with his elega