A late 17th or early 18th century personification of death with a scythe will appear in Sotheby’s Old Master Sculpture sale in London tomorrow.

The sculpture was made in southern Germany, circa late 1700s 

These sculptures originally appear in southern Germany in the early 16th century, where they were known as Todlein (little deaths).

The morbid figures were designed as a meditations on death, but were also valued as macabre curios.

These figures were usually depicted with a bow and arrow rather than a scythe (the present specimen displays both).

It’s valued at £25,000-35,000 ($32,265-45,172).  

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