The Abduction of the Sabine Women

Artisan: Neil Carter
Date: Unknown
Intended Room: Gallery
Dimensions: TBC
Inventory number: TBC

Provenance: Purchased from Judy Taylor at Kensington Dolls House Festival, May 2022, where she was selling off stock from her old shop, Taylors Miniatures, in Goring-on-Thames. Judy bought the piece directly from Neil at a fair some years ago.

I think my most prized find at Kensington in May 2022 was this stupendous copy after Giambologna’s Abduction of the Sabine Women by Neil Carter. This sculpture has been on my wishlist since we started collecting about a year ago, and I was blown away to see it on Michael Mortimer’s stand, where his wife Judy Taylor was selling some old stock from the shop she used to run. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

This splendid piece is set on a pedestal painted to imitate veined marble and set with a bronze relief showing a coat of arms. I think I recognise three of the Medici palle at the bottom, but the horizontal band and the upper part are unfamiliar to me. I’ll have to ask Neil which coat of arms it is. The sculpture itself is a triumph of in-the-round composition, showing three figures entwined. One man kneels in an attitude of shock and horror as another man steps over him, lifting a distressed woman in his arms; she twists, trying to free herself. Arms stretch out; fingers are splayed; there are complex interplays of limbs. It’s an absolutely smashing piece which does justice to Giambologna’s breathtaking original sculpture.

Alas, I was just too slow, at Kensington, to secure the matching sculpture of Florence Overcoming Pisa, which Neil also made, but I have it on good authority from Neil himself that he still has the moulds and is considering making some more. So all is not lost! And we are now the proud owners of one of these utterly remarkable pieces. Miniature sculpture does not get any more special than this, and this will sit at the very heart of the Gallery, surrounded by smaller-scale Renaissance bronze sculpture (much of it by Neil) and original hand-painted copies after the Old Masters.

For another interpretation of Giambologna’s masterpiece, take a look at John Blauer’s smaller statue, which will also be on display in the Gallery.