Art
Deco
figurines are those small-scale bronze or spelter
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), ceramic and spelter figurines.
Now famous sculptors such as Demetre
Chiparus, Ferdinand Preiss, Josef Lorenzl and Claire Colinet
all took their inspiration from the dancers, cabaret
performers, movie stars and the fashion styles seen in
Hollywood, Paris and Berlin at that time.
These Art Deco figurines are now sold in
major auction houses throughout the world with many
collectors of the style eager to own statues 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, these lively sculptures of exotic females
will continue strutting, posing and dancing their way
through the 21st Century and beyond!
Silent footage of Berlin nightlife from around 1930can
be seen here.
