Art
Deco
bronze figurines are those small-scale sculptures
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 these exotic ladies will continue strutting,
posing and dancing their way through the 21st Century and
beyond!