Art
Deco bronze figurines are small-scale statues produced for
home decoration in the 1920s and 30s (and originally for sale in
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 sculptors such 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. Below is silent footage of Berlin
nightlife from around 1930.
With their works now being sold in major auction houses
throughout the world, and 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 artists designed
these little works of art that those exotic ladies will
continue to strut, pose and dance their way through the 21st
Century and beyond!
