Sir George James Frampton (British, 1860-1928): A patinated bronze figure of 'Peter Pan'

the figure originally conceived 1911, this reduction edition dated 1913

Footnotes

Provenance
Property of a private UK family collection since the late 1940's.

A leading sculptor of his day, Frampton was a central figure of the New School of sculpture but is perhaps today most famous for his depiction of Peter Pan, J. M. Barrie's 'boy that never grew up' and fantastical storybook hero of Edwardian children's literature.

Derived from the life size plaster of Peter Pan exhibited by Frampton at The Royal Academy in May 1911, it was then cast in bronze and erected on behalf of the 'anonymous donor' J. M. Barrie in Kensington Gardens in May of the following year. The statue was placed at Barrie's request on the spot in Kensington Gardens where the little boy appears nightly in his first book 'Little White Bird' dating from 1901. The figure of Peter was supposedly modelled on a family friend of Barrie's, Michael Llewellyn-Davies who was one of the five brothers who inspired the original stories. Barrie is known to have sent Frampton photographs of Michael dressed as Peter Pan from which to work but it is now thought more likely that Frampton actually modelled his Peter on another boy, possibly James W. Shaw or William A. Harwood.

The statue was first seen publicly to great acclaim on the 1st May 1912 with no advance publicity after Barrie placed an advert in The Times stating:

'There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning. Down by the little bay on the south-western side of the tail of the Serpentine they will find a May-day gift by Mr J.M. Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree, with fairies and mice and squirrels all around. It is the work of Sir George Frampton, and the bronze figure of the boy who would never grow up is delightfully conceived'

The statue depicts Peter standing in exactly the same pose as Frampton's original figure first shown in 1911 but with the addition of fairies, rabbits, mice and squirrels to the more elaborate naturalistic base. Much admired, it quickly become a favourite landmark for many adults and children, and is often considered to be one of the most popular public statues in London. Other life-size versions of the statue were later erected in Sefton Park, Liverpool, Canada, Brussels, Australia and New Jersey.

It was the obvious widespread popular appeal of the statue that subsequently led Frampton to produce limited edition reductions of the main figure of Peter and the present lot is an early example of one these reductions produced between 1913 and 1925.

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