Description
Autograph Letter Signed, to J.Spielmann, mentioning his marble sculpture, “Fate-led”. A good one page example, 6 x 4 inches. 11 Trafalgar Studios, Manresa Road, Chelsea, 7 March 1900. Albert Toft (1862-1949), sculptor. Toft’s career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, Boer War to 1902, and then World War I to 1918, provided plentiful commissions. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Toft as one of the major figures of the “New Sculpture” following on from William Hamo Thornycroft and George Frampton. Toft described his work as ‘Idealist’ but he also said of himself that “to become an idealist you must necessarily first be a realist.”