Lot 706: Robert Olley, A Pair of Cold Cast Bronze Mining Relief Plaques

A pair of rectangular wall plaques in high relief, crafted in cold cast bronze with a dark patinated finish. The first plaque depicts a domestic scene inside a Northern English miner’s cottage, featuring a mother and children gathered around a cast iron range stove, including a child in a tin bath and another crawling in the foreground. The second plaque illustrates a coal miner in a kneeling position, working a pickaxe within a cramped coal seam, supported by timber pit props and accompanied by a safety lamp and a seated lunch tin. Both pieces are signed in the cast at the lower right Robert Olley followed by a copyright symbol. The reverse of the cottages scene plaque is finished with red felt and bears a yellow adhesive label printed A COLD CAST SCULPTURE BY ROBERT OLLEY. The reverse of the mining scene plaque is finished with blue felt and bears a matching yellow adhesive label printed A COLD CAST SCULPTURE BY ROBERT OLLEY.