bronze

NIGERIA

Benin Head of King Oba,  c. early to mid-20th Century

Lost wax cast bronze with a rich brown and black patina with light desert sand patina in some of the recessed areas.

The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, and is meant to symbolize and to extol the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions. From the 14th century until its fall in 1897, Benin was ruled by the Oba, a divine ruler at the head of the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsman’s guilds produced bronze, brass, and wood sculptures and embroidered cloth, all of which have become prized by museums and collectors.

These heads were typically placed on altars dedicated to each of the past Oba’s of Benin. The altars are semicircular mud platforms that have been packed hard and rubbed smooth and are located in open courtyards of the palace. The royal altars are the settings for one of the two most important rites of divine kingship in Benin, Ugie Erha Oba, when the Oba honors the spirit of his late father and performs sacrifices to the royal ancestors and to the earth in which they are buried. Acknowledging his role as his fathers’ successor, the chiefs pay homage to the king and greet him in order of seniority. The rite expresses the continuity of divine kingship, and the altar before which it takes place provides the means by which the connection between the living king and his predecessors was established and made.

H: 14 1/2″ x D: 7 1/2″ x W: 8 1/2″

Benin King Oba bronze standing figure, Nigeria, 20th Century

Lost wax cast bronze with a rich brown and black patina with light desert sand patina in some of the recessed areas.

The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, and is meant to symbolize and to extol the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions. From the 14th century until its fall in 1897, Benin was ruled by the Oba, a divine ruler at the head of the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsman's guilds produced bronze, brass, and wood sculptures and embroidered cloth, all of which have become prized by museums and collectors.

H: 20″ x W: 7 1/2″ x D: 7 1/2″

ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE (1882-1970) France
VALSUANI FONDEUR (1899-1981) Paris, France

Cubist mask sculpture  20th Century

Cast bronze with rich brown-black patina (possibly cast at a later date by the Valsuani Foundry)

Marks: G. Flamant, 2/8 C. Valsuani Cire Perdue (signed on chin)

H: 11” x W: 7” x D: 5 ½”;
On stand: H: 18 ½”

Price: $35,000

ANDREE FLAMANT-DUCANY-GIDE
Flamant-Gide was born in Nimes, France on January 2nd, 1892 and died on March 28th 1970.  She was both a painter and sculptor and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Artists Francais beginning in 1923. She sculpted in an angular Cubist style influenced by African Art and was a fellow artist of Joseph Csaky, Gustave Miklos, Jacques Lipchitz and Henri Laurens who were considered the leading Art Deco sculptors in Paris during the 1920’s.

CUBISM

Cubism drew its influence from: Cezanne’s structural analysis in his oil landscapes, e.g. ‘La Montagne Sainte Victorie’ c.1887; Gauguin’s figurative landscapes, e.g. ‘Haymaking’ 1889; and African tribal Art such as Gabon masks. European artists were greatly influenced by African and Oceanic Art during the late 1890s and early 1900s. African sculpture, with its bold shapes and lines, had a great impact on the development of Cubism. Maurice de Vlaminck became a keen admirer and collector of African masks after seeing them in a Paris anthropological museum. He purchased similar masks and his excitement for these works displaying bold primitive expressions and simplistic design filtered through to Matisse, Derain, Gris and Picasso, who all became collectors as well. By the 1920s African art exhibitions were common in Paris and other cities throughout Europe.
Cubist sculpture brought the simplified shapes of Cubist painting together with the three-dimensional modeling medium of sculpture. The first Cubist sculpture, which could be properly deemed as such was made by Picasso in 1909 and was titled ‘Head of a Woman’. However Picasso did experiment with sculptural forms as early as 1907 when he found himself fascinated and deeply influenced by African masks. Cubist sculpture was mostly reminiscent of Analytical Cubism in its stripping away of illusionist details to reveal the fundamental form contained in each individual subject, be it human or still-life.

VALSUANI FOUNDRY
The Valsuani foundry was started by the brothers Claude and Attilio Valsuani who learned the foundry trade while employed at the Hebrard foundry.  While working for Hebrard, Claude Valsuani showed great promise as a finisher and eventually worked his way up to become the Technical Director of the Hebrard foundry. In 1899 Claude Valsuani started his own foundry in Chatillon, casting mostly small works for various artists primarily using the lost wax technique of casting (cire perdue). In 1905 he moved his foundry to 74 Rue des Plantes in Paris. Among the famous sculptors who had the Valsuani foundry cast their works were: Renoir, Picasso, Despiau, Paul Troubetzkoy, Matisse, and Gaugin. Claude Valsuani died in 1923 in his native Italy but his son, Marcele then took over the foundry and continued the tradition of producing extremely fine bronzes until the 1970’s.

MAURICE BOUVAL  (born  Toulouse, died 1920)  France

M. COLIN  France

“Nymph Embracing a Blossom” candle holder  c.1900

Silvered cast bronze in the form of a nymph on a leaf embracing a blossom

Marks: M. Bouval (script signature) and COLIN, (Foundry) written above

For other examples of Bouval’s work see: The Paris Salons 1895-1914, Vol. V: Objets d’Art & Metalware, Alastair Duncan (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors’ Club, 1999), p. 127; Ecole to Deco, Small Sculptures from a Private Collection, Stephen C. McGough ed. (Oberlin, Ohio: Allen Memorial Art Museum, 1979) pp. 33-4; Art Nouveau Sculpture, Alastair Duncan (New York: Rizzoli, 1978) pp. 30-1.

H: 3″ x W: 6 1/2″ x D: 4 3/4″

SCANDINAVIAN ART NOUVEAU

“Wisteria” bronze photo frame  c.1910

Elaborately detailed, acid etched and multi-patinated bronze table top photo frame with gilt details of a cascade of wisteria blossoms, leaves and vines.

Overall Frame: H: 12” x W: 7 ½”
Oval photo window opening H: 5 ½” x W: 4”

Price: $3,650

Franz Xaver Bergman (1861–1936)  (attr.) Vienna, Austria.

Bull pen wipe c. 1900

Cold painted bronze, boar’s hair bristles, horn.

For information see: Art Bronzes, Mich. Forrest (Schiffer, 1988).

H:  5 1/4” x L:  11”

Franz Xaver Bergman (1861–1936) was the owner of a Viennese foundry who produced numerous patinated and cold-painted bronze Oriental, erotic and animal figures, the latter often humanized or whimsical, humorous objects d’art.

A well-known anamalier at the turn-of-the century, the sculptor Franz Bergman created a number of small bronzes in a variety of subject matter.  Other figurative works were informed by the Jugendstil/Art Nouveau style and the European taste for the exotic as is found in his figures of rug merchants and camels.  His animal sculptures, however, capture the Viennese tradition of naturalistic bronzes.  The quality of the bronze casting shows tremendous detail, which was carefully brought out through the applied patination process known as cold painting.