Hi B & SB.
I thought the Rippi topic was done and dusted, just shows, you never can tell.
It's great to hear of people in the UK that still have some of Rippi's sculptures, most were either lost or not appreciated for what they were, although a few have found their way into UK and Hungarian State collections. In the early 1970s, a major Budapest art gallery even held an exhibition of his work, and they recently let me copy of some of the artifacts shown in the programe published at the time.
I don't have any sculptures myself, I was just helping someone out here in Hungary unravel the life history of the man who is credited as having introduced the sport of orienteering into the country after participating in it in Scandinavia. What I do have is a book of his sketches of significant Russians that he drew whilst in captivity. The former Communist leadership banned that book soon after its publication, but I did manage to get a copy post 1990 when collections from their own archives were up for grabs.
His life story is most intriguing. Born in the rural south, studied at various art colleges, designed houses, became an Olympic athlete (1912), conscripted into WW1, captured Poland 1915, held prisoner in a Siberian labour camp, and on his release became a poster designer, cartographer, artist, sculptor, and a conservationist. He eventually married the daughter of a bridge designer and manufacturer from the Birmingham area whose father's firm (I presume) may have had a hand in casting his bronzes. His ashes were placed by the wall of Ockley church, but the bronze motive he designed to go over the spot, has been 'removed' by a less scrupulous member of the public. Hopefully they were impoverished appreciators of his technique rather than just seeking its value as scrap metal.
I will try to send you a personal message so we can chat off line and hopefully, in exchange for some further illustrations of his other work and details of his general artistic background, you will kindly let me have copy pictures of the two artifacts you have obtained. They may even appear in a some post WW2 photos I have of him in his studio surrounded by his work.
Yours Roy G