Art
Deco bronze figurines are those small-scale statues
produced for home decoration in the 1920s and 1930s (and
originally for sale in many UK jewellers and department stores)
that perfectly capture the spirit of the age. This romanticised
time of luxurious transatlantic ocean liner palaces such as the
SS Normandie and RMS Queen Mary, cocktails and flappers, wild
jazz music, Hollywood
and divine decadence was captured in bronze (with ivory)
and spelter sculptures by such famous sculptors as Demetre
Chiparus, Ferdinand Preiss, Josef Lorenzl and Claire Colinet
taking their inspiration from the dancers, cabaret performers,
movie stars and fashion in Hollywood, Paris and Berlin at that
time. Silent footage of Berlin nightlife from around 1930
can be seen here.
These Art Deco sculptures are now sold in
major auction houses throughout the world with many collectors
of the style eager to own figures that appear to be "frozen in
time". There is no doubt that nearly one hundred years after
the sculptors designed these little works of art, that these
exotic ladies will continue strutting, posing and dancing
their way through the 21st Century and beyond!
