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 (banker) the favor of the Russian government, as is evidenced by his appointment as banker of the treasury commission of the Kingdom of Poland in 1838. Epstein was the founder and president of the Jewish hospital at Warsaw, on which he spent large sums and which he raised to a high standard of efficiency. Tsar Nicholas I, who visited the institution, conferred on Epstein the title of "hereditary honorary citizen." The high respect in which Epstein was held by the Christian population of Warsaw is best indicated by his election to membership in the commission of charities, which consisted mostly of