Paul-Auguste Gagné, French Egyptian Revival Gilt Bronze Garniture Set c. 1875
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Paul-Auguste Gagné, French Egyptian Revival Gilt Bronze Garniture Set c. 1875
Paul-Auguste Gagné (Sculptor) France
Egyptian Revival garniture set, circa 1875
Gilt bronze and carved rouge marble mantle clock and candelabra in a high Egyptian Revival style
Marks: P.A. Gagne (elaborate incised scroll signature on the back of the portrait bust)
For more information on Gagné see: Dictionnaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. 4, E. Bénézit (Paris: Librairie Gründ, 1976) p. 579.
For other related Egyptian Revival garniture sets see: Egyptomania: Egypt in Western Art, 1730-1930 (Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1994)
Gustav Gurschner, Secessionist / Byzantine Revival bronze vase c. 1905
GUSTAV GURSCHNER (1873-1970) Austria
Vase c. 1905
Cast bronze ovoid shaped vase with decorative Celtic motif, lightly gilded, the body of the vase simulating leather with a rich brown patina
Signed: GURSCHNER, M180 (stamped in the bronze)
Related works illustrated: The Studio, Special Summer Number 1906: The Art Revival in Austria, ill. no. D6; Studio Yearbook (London, 1909), pp. 139-140; Vienna Turn of the Century: Art and Design, Fischer Fine Art, exhib. cat. (London 1979), p. 23, illus. 1; Bronzes, sculptors & Founders, H. Berman, (Atglen 1994 III) p. 781, cat. nos. 2893, 2894; Decorative Art 1880-1980, Dan Klein & Margaret Bishop (Oxford, England: Phaidon and Christie’s Limited, 1986) p. 84, illus. 1
H: 7 1/4″ x D: 7″ x D: 4″
Price: $14,500
Gustav Gurschner was born in Tirol, Austria. He attended the Fachschule für Holzindustrie in Bozen from 1885-1888. After three years, his instructors encouraged him to attend the Austrian Museum for Applied Arts’ Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. After finishing his formal training, Gurschner pursued a career as a sculptor of monumental works. It was while he was in Paris in 1897, that he first turned his energies from the application of small-scale, sculptural works to the aesthetic design of household objects. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Vienna to join the Secessionists whose ideals he shared. By the turn-of-the-century, Gurschner was not only one of the better known artists working in Vienna but enjoyed a reputation that extended into other European countries as well.
French Art Nouveau Bronze and frosted glass grape cluster and vine lamp c. 1900
FRENCH ART NOUVEAU
JULIEN CAUSSE attr. (1869-1914) Bourges, France
Bronze and frosted glass grape cluster and vine lamp c. 1900
L: 24″ x dia (grape cluster): 7″
Julien Causse was born in Bourges, France and worked from 1890 – 1914. He studied in Paris under Falguiére and exhibited at The Salon des Artists Francais in the 1890s, obtaining honourable mentions in 1882 and 1900 and a third class medal in 1893. He also took part in the exposition Universelle of 1900.
Maurice Bouval French Art Nouveau Nymph Silvered Bronze Candleholder c. 1900
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.
Benin Bronze Head of King Oba, African, Nigeria 20th Century
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.
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