Charles Sargeant Jagger, M.C.

Gifted by the Artist to Bobby Howes in December 1931, and thence by descent to the present owners

Ann Compton, The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2004, cat. no.25, illustrated (another cast).

Structurally sound. There is a single tiny nip to the back of the plaster base, with a very tiny possible speck of very, very minor loss to the rim of the solder's helmet at the back, only visible upon extremely close inspection, and a few very, very minor, scattered flecks of paint loss to the tip of the gun, again only visible upon close inspection. Elsewhere there is very minor surface dirt and dust to the crevices, but this excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. The bayonet is detachable. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

We are grateful to Ann Compton for her kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

The work of Charles Sargeant Jagger is widely considered as amongst the finest sculpture to emerge out of the atrocities of the First World War, with Wipers holding an important position as Jagger’s first public commission. In 1919 Jagger began work on Soldier on Defence for the Hoylake Memorial in Cheshire, a project that was to take until 1922 to complete, and part of a much broader national movement to commemorate the lives lost in the First World War. Monuments were erected in cities, towns and villages across the country by both recognised and newly emerging artists and sculptors. Wipers, the maquette produced for the final finished memorial depicts an archetypal British Tommy, with an unshakable dependability as displayed through his strong, un-flinching stance, with a discarded German helmet sitting by the figure’s right foot, a further reminder of the recent war. Inspired in part by the ancient Egyptian figures he had seen in the collection of the British Museum, Jagger presents the very ordinary Tommy as a solemn, watchful figure, especially suitable for a commission to commemorate the recently deceased. The sculptor developed his depictions of the Tommy further in commissions including the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner (1921-5) and the Great Western Railway War Memorial (1922), creating images that are both heroic and patriotic without overt tones of jingoism. Amongst his most popular sculptures, the first bronze maquette for Wipers was commissioned by H.R.H. Prince of Wales in March 1921, with a small number of further lifetime casts in both bronze and plaster made up until the sculptor’s death in 1934.

The link between Jagger and the popular music hall star Bobby Howes is a fascinating one. Like Jagger, Howes served on the Western front in the First World War, fighting with the Rangers in the 12^th Division of the London Rifles at Passchendaele in 1915. However the link was most probably forged through Jagger’s theatre-going back in London, and possibly through the marriage to his second wife Evelyn Jagger (née Wade) in 1925, herself an actress in London’s West End. It is possible that the friendship was formed through Evelyn, and the gift of the present work made at her request, a theory which would explain the misspelling of Bobby’s last name to the inscription. Howes remained a popular theatre performer, expanding into both Broadway and the film industry until his retirement in the late 1960s. Having remained within the collection of his family, the present work is a rare and exciting discovery by one of the most important and widely respected sculptors of the early 20^th Century.