20th century. Marked on the back ‘MANE ITALY’. Raised on a circular gray marble socle.

The Sinatras’ figure of the Spinario can be seen on the Jacobean style console table (lot 12) in two different views of the living room in archival photos taken at Frank & Nancy Sinatra’s Holmby Hills estate at 320 N. Carolwood Drive.

This sculpture also appears directly in front of Frank Sinatra in a 1967 snapshot taken at Nancy Sinatra’s Bel Air home. The Spinario depicts a seated boy in the act of removing a thorn from his foot, hence one of the common alternate names, ‘Boy With Thorn’ (it is also sometimes referred to as ‘Il Fedele’ or ‘Fedelino’.) The ancient bronze of the Spinario, probably dating from the 1st Century B.C., was among the best known and most copied pieces of antique sculpture in Renaissance Rome. The sculpture is first recorded in the Papal Collection at the Lateran Palace in the 12th Century, and in 1471, was among the group of bronzes donated to the Palazzo dei Conservatori by Pope Sixtus IV.

Height overall, 13 inches

PROVENANCE From the Estate of Mrs. Nancy Sinatra


Frank Sinatra