£200 - £300
Thomas Wills (attrib.), a small carved wood panel of a putti Possibly limewood, the cherubic face with wings surrounded by flowers, within an oak cavetto frame. 6cm x 12cm (frame 10cm x 16cm)
Footnote:
The reverse of this panel is inscribed in ink 'Carved by Thos.Wills, a pupil of Ruskin'.
Thomas Wills (1837-1909), son of woodcarver and gilder William Wills (b.1810), also became a carver and gilder and practised in London circa 1858-1888, whereupon he relocated to Liverpool where his wife's family resided. It is assumed that Thomas enrolled at the newly formed Working Man's College circa 1854-58 at the time Ruskin was acting as an art teacher, along with D.G.Rossetti and E.Burne-Jones, perhaps the source of the annotation on the present lot verso. Thomas Wills is known to have exhibited twice at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in the 1890s.
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