Rock Drill (Jacob Epstein) Rock Drill (Jacob Epstein) Rock Drill (c. 1913–1915) and the associated Torso in Metal from Rock Drill (c. 1913–1916) are Jacob Epstein's most radical sculptures. "Rock Drill" comprises a plaster figure perched on top of an actual rock drill. The combination of an industrial rock drill and the carved plaster figure makes the artwork an example of a "Readymade" created at the same time as Marcel Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel" (1913). A 1974 reconstruction, by Ken Cook and Ann Christopher, is part of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery's collection. "Rock Drill" has been heralded as embodying the spirit of "radical
Jacob Epstein (spy) the Gnome Project, which was the secret plan to free Ramón Mercader, Leon Trotsky's murderer, from jail. Epstein is referenced in Venona decrypt 800 New York to Moscow 28 May 1943, and another decrypt on 30 May 1943. The material cites Epstein as having placed two agents in the prison where Mercader was held. The plan called for moving Mercader out of Mexico once the jailbreak was made. Venona decrypt 193–194 Mexico City to Moscow, 14 March 1944 identifies Anna Colloms, while on a courier mission to Mexico, reporting the KGB detected surveillance of Ruth Wilson, Epstein's wife, and Colloms,