The early Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea famous for his ingenious paradoxes such as Zeno’s Arrow and that of Achilles and the tortoise which sought to prove that the fastest runner could never overtake the slowest. He is said to have died a horrible death at the hands of the tyrant Nearchus, but not before biting his ear off.
Josiah Wedgwood obtained a plaster bust of Zeno, along with twenty-two others, from the firm of Hoskins and Grant of London for which he was invoiced on 21st March 1774, it was listed in Wedgwood’s catalogue of 1774. James Hoskins and Benjamin Grant are recorded working for the sculptor John Cheere in 1751 (Reilly Appendix K, p. 749).
The example in the Harvard Art Museum (1943.1204) bears a label which says that it was made by Wedgwood for his friend Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin and a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham.
Bust of Zeno of Elea, print by Jan de Bisschop, based on a bust by an unknown artist, 1666 – 1671
Condition:
1cm flake and minute chip on edge of socle
For the examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum see: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O333529/bust-of-zeno-bust-josiah-wedgwoods-factory/
References:
Robin Reilly, Wedgwood, (Stockton Press 1989), vol. II, p. 749
Price: £14,000
