Automotive mascots out of the Jazz Age. Some of these having been part of a Agfa Film brand advertising campaign. From a recent Bonham’s auction catalogue.

Mascot in silver-plated bronze and white and blue enamel. Mascot made for the Agfa Film brand for their important advertising campaign in the 1930s. Silver-plated bronze and blue and white enamel. Image © Bonhams 2001-2023. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27987/lot/415/agfa-film-h20-cm-et-l-20-cm/

Femme Papillon Automotive mascot signed V. Rossi and titled L’Art Allégorique, 17 rue Marois, Paris. Silver-plated bronze, mounted on a Citroën radiator cap.It appears in the catalogue of the magazine “L’Equipement Automobile” in 1922/23. Image © Bonhams 2001-2023. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27987/lot/417/v-rossi-butterfly-woman-h-95-cm-et-long-16-cm/

La Sirène, Automotive mascot in silver-plated bronze with a high quality marble base. Georges Colin, designer. Signed G. Colin, stamped Syndicat des fondeurs unis, numbered 10 and 1032. It was listed in the Hermès catalogue of 1925, award winner of l’Auto newspaper in 1922. Image © Bonhams 2001-2023. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27987/lot/418/georges-colin-1876-1917-the-mermaid-h-1655-cm-with-base-275-cm/

Automotive mascot in silvered-plated bronze, mounted on a red enameled Panhard radiator cap. embossed on the wings “Avions Voisin“. Created by a dealer of the brand to decorate his customers’ vehicles. ca. 1930s. Image © Bonhams 2001-2023. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27987/lot/421/avions-voisin-mascot/

Victorian centerpieces by Elkington of Birmingham. So much more fun than a plastic bowl of fruit.

Centerpiece with two entwined palms sheltering two dogs or greyhounds, modeled after Pierre-Jules Mène’s Two Whippets at Play. Villeroy and Boch plate in blue and white ceramic, above a shaped bronze base, with two entwined palms sheltering two dogs or greyhounds. Undated, 19th c. Possibly made by the British Elkington and Company. Image © 1stDibs.com, Inc. 2022. Fair use license. via https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/dining-entertaining/centerpieces/villeroy-boch-plate-elkington-co-centerpiece-after-pj-mennes-two-whippets/id-f_20456382/

Silverplate centerpiece comprised of elk and palm trees with a mirrored tableau. 19th c. English. Possibly made by Elkington. Image
© 2022 Chairish, Inc. Fair use license. via https://www.chairish.com/product/3446202/19th-century-elkington-style-silverplate-centerpiece

.Silvered bronze centerpiece with standing figures of a young hunter, a friar and a fish monger with a spaniel and game at their feet, mounted with plaques with 1859 and 1941 inscriptions. The inscriptions reading: “Presented to William Johnson Esq. as a token of respect & esteem by the workpeople in the employ of Messrs Richard Johnson & Brother, Manchester, January 28, 1859”, and “Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers, Alias Wire Workers of the City of London, Presented by Arthur Laurence Johnson M.A., Grandson of William Johnson, both Wire Workers, with his Daughter Eleanor Morton Johnson, a Freeman of the Company, to commemorate his Mastership 1941-42.” The company founded by the Johnsons supplied galvanized armored wire for the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1857. Original glass bowl. 1859. English. Made by Elkington, Mason and Company. Image
© 2022 Chairish, Inc. Fair use license. via https://www.chairish.com/product/4367653/antique-victorian-elkington-mason-co-silvered-bronze-centerpiece

Parcel-gilt silver centerpiece, the base supported on winged dolphin head feet and wide border decorated with panels of bacchic putti centered by female masks. Fitted with two removable kidney-shaped porcelain bowls with gilt scroll borders. The ends of the base with twin-tailed figures of Neptune supporting detachable shell-form dishes above their heads and flanked by rearing mer-horses. The central support decorated with flowerheads and lotus leaves and flanked by two joyous putti under an openwork basket pierced with panels of cherries spaced by beaded tendrils and hung with swags of chains, the central basket with a removable cut-glass bowl and the shell-form dishes with removable glass liners. 1866. British. Design attributed to Auguste Adolphe Willms. Elkington and Company, maker. Image © 2021 Sothebys. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2010/19th-century-furniture-sculpture-ceramics-silver-and-works-of-art-n08627/lot.45.html

A mere bagatelle for the mantelpiece. 19th century garnitures. Gilt, silver bronze and other fun things.

“Persian” mantel clock garniture with two matching two-light candelabra. The clock with a three and a half inch dial with enamel cartouche numerals, the bell striking movement with Brocot suspension and stamped to the backplate HD. The case supported by metamorphic dragons on a shaped marble plinth with gilt base. ca. 1855. French. Gilt and silvered bronze. Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume, designer. Auguste-Maximillian Delafontaine, maker. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/style-london-furniture-clocks-silver-ceramics/a-gilt-and-silvered-bronze-persian-mantel-clock

Three piece garniture comprised of a central clock and a pair of flanking vases, all veneered in lapis lazuli with gilt bronze mounts. The clock with a central circular drum case holding the movement, fronted by the dial with enamel roundel showing the time in Roman and Arabic numerals. The clock with a hanging pendulum below and with clockworks set within a case flanked by two columns on each side. Two Greek sphinx figures with female heads and the wings of a bird are placed atop the lintel, set in line with the columns and facing outwards. The clock is surmounted by a lidded urn with flowers and fruit. The flanking vases with similar decorations and featuring twin intertwined serpent handles. Neoclassical, made in the late 19th century with the lapis lazuli veneer added later. French. Image © 2022 Mayfair Gallery Limited. Fair use license. via https://www.mayfairgallery.com/gilt-bronze-and-lapis-lazuli-three-piece-clock-garniture

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Garniture with a central mantel clock and pair of flanking candlesticks. Ormolu with the malachite veneer added later. The mantel clock features a shaped malachite base raised by two ormolu toupie feet and two scrolled acanthus leaf feet. The base supports, via a waisted plinth, the circular white enamel clock dial which is inscribed with Arabic numeral hours indices. The dial is contained within an ormolu bezel and is set within the malachite case. The clock case is flanked by twin malachite and ormolu quiver and arrow elements and is surmounted by a malachite urn-form finial draped with ormolu foliate garlands. The candlesticks are similarly decorated, each raised on a conforming malachite and ormolu base and terminating in a single candleholder. Late 19th c,. Neoclassical French. The enamel dial is signed Ovington Brothers Co. / New York / Made in France for the retailer that originally sold the set. Image © 2022 Mayfair Gallery Limited. Fair use license. via https://www.mayfairgallery.com/antique-french-malachite-ormolu-three-piece-clock-set

Automobile mascots straight out of the Jazz Age. A little something to spiff up the Rolls.

Mascot for Automobiles Delahaye, mounted on a radiator cap. Undated. Shaped and riveted aluminum sheets. Attributed to P. Guerre and bearing the stamp of its publisher, SIS. Maker’s marks: Struck SIS on each side. Image © Bonhams 2001-2022. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27928/lot/52/automobiles-delahaye/

Shooting Star automobile mascot in silver bronze. Signed J. Garnier. Image © Bonhams 2001-2022. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27928/lot/59/j-garnier-shooting-star/

Chrome and bronze dragonfly automotive mascot of the manufacturer Desmo with the wings partially in mother-or-pearl. Maker’s marks: Registration #787192 struck under the wings. Image © Bonhams 2001-2022. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auction/27928/lot/60/dragonfly/

Surtout de table or table centerpieces. French. They just don’t make them like this anymore.

Surtout de table à la Pagode in finely chiseled vermeil. Composed of a large plate, covered by a mirror and surrounded by balustrades surmounted by covered urns running alongside four small removable basins opening onto two flights of steps flanked by dolphins and, on the sides, onto two fountains with mascarons in the middle of rushes. There is an open pagoda in the center with leafy uprights and an openwork roof with a Meissen porcelain musician in the center. 1873 to 1900. French. Boin Taburet, maker. Maker’s marks: Goldsmith’s signature BOIN TABURET à PARIS. Image © proantic.com. Fair use license. via https://www.proantic.com/magazine/surtout-de-table-a-la-pagode/

Surtout de Table in cast and gilt bronze with hand engraving, cut glass, and silver-mirrored glass. Similar to one used at the wedding banquet of Napoleon and Empress Marie-Louise. ca. 1810. French. Pierre-Philippe Thomire, maker (1751-1843). Image © Cooper Hewitt Museum. Fair use license. via https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2018/09/05/surtout-de-table-sustenance-of-political-power/

Central section of a surtout de table of centerpiece for a table of a hundred guests with the theme of France distributing crowns of glory. Galvanic bronze and silver-plated bronze, electroplated. Originally silver-plated, its present color, rough areas, and blisters are due to the terrible fire that destroyed the Tuileries palace during the Commune in 1871. Neoclassical. 1852-1858, commissioned in 1852 by the future Napoleon III. French. François Gilbert, Georges Diebolt, and Pierre-Louis Rouillard, sculptors. Made in Paris by Christofle. Image © MAD, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Fair use license. via https://madparis.fr/central-section-of-a-centerpiece-for-a-table-of-a-hundred-guests-france

“Retour d’Egypte” candelabra with more than a touch of Egyptian motifs. Very fashionable after Napoleon returned from Egypt. And later. Some of them almost five feet tall.

Pair of Empire “Retour d’Egypt” seven light figural candelabra in gilt and patinated bronze, depicting an Egyptian king and queen clad in draped robes and wearing nemes, their heads supporting pedestal urns with each urn issuing a pair of scrolling candle arms with folate nozzles surmounted by a further scrolling arm and flanked by two crouching female figures, the standing figural supports each holding a further urn issuing four scrolling candle arms, the nozzles supported on ram’s head or wolf’s head cast terminals. The tapering shaped plinths raised on paw feet, and having applied figural relief plaquettes depicting Diana and Endymion. Image © Bonhams 2001-2021. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/26939/lot/37/?category=list&length=189&page=1

Pair of “Retour d’Egypte” candlesticks in gilded bronze. ca. 1850. French. Maker not given. Image © 2021 AnticStore and Mora Antiques. Fair use license. via https://www.anticstore.art/91399P

Pair of Regency “Retour d’Egypte” ormolu three-light candelabra, each with a flaming finial and three sphinx branches, the fluted column with a lion monopodia base and hoof feet. The lower section of each candelabra depicting a stylized anthemion flanked with florets scrolling zoomorphic supports with lion paw feet, almost certainly modeled on designs of 1799 by Tatham that were disseminated in his “Etchings representing Fragments of Grecian and Roman Architectural Ornaments”. George IV as Prince Regent purchased a very similar pair. 1800-1825. Probably British. Image © Christie’s 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6062724

Ewers from various 19th century style revivals. Why not have something more visually interesting than the food at your next dinner party.

Pair of gilt bronze and crystal ewers in the Etruscan style, each with a gilded bronze handle terminated by a mask, the gadrooned body above a circular foot, centered by a blue enamel emblem with the letters “SAC”. 19th c. Maker not known. Image © Proantic.com and Le Brun Antiques and Works of Fine Art, London. Fair use license. via https://www.proantic.com/display.php?mode=obj&id=805544

Pair of large Renaissance Revival ewers with black marble bases in chiseled, gilded and dark ocher patina bronze decorated in a theme of hunting under the Renaissance (greyhounds and falconry) with hunters with their dogs, an angel, on the beak of the ewer: a grotesque face. The handle with a complex pattern of bars, foliage and volutes and a hawk. Gilt pedestal adorned with acanthus leaves and a stack of moldings. 19th c. Maker not known. Image ©2017 | anticSwiss™ – P.IVA IT02292420482. Fair use license. via https://www.anticswiss.com/en/fine-art-antiques/pair-of-large-ewers-renaissance-style-xixth-14908

Pair of ovoid gilt bronze and patinated bronze ewers in the Louis XVI or Directoire style, the beak in the shape of a goat’s head, the body decorated with antique bas-reliefs and the handles decorated with intertwined reptiles. Round pedestal bases chiseled with canals and a laurel frieze. 19th c. Maker not known. Image © proantic.com and Une Autre Epoque. Fair use license. via https://www.proantic.com/display.php?id=502841

Pair of bronze ewers with two patinas depicting bacchanal scenes after Clodion with the gilded bronze frame supporting the body with large stylized acanthus leaves and a circular pedestal base with channels adorned with a frieze of vines and a frieze of pearls. The medal patina body being decorated with bas reliefs after Clodion, depicting putti and child satyrs manhandling a dog and a goat while brandishing thyrsis with vines and friezes of gilded bronze beads adorning the upper part of the ewer and the weir being decorated with water leaves at the base as well as a decoration of vines and friezes of olives and coins. Gilt bronze guilloche handles, each straddled by a winged bacchic putto holding bunches of grapes and seated in front of a bird with vine leaves wrapping around each handle which is also decorated with grooves and foliage and finished with a ram’s head topped with leaves. 19th c. The scenes depicted are similar to bas-reliefs made by Clodion (1738-1814) at the request of the Princess of Bourbon-Condé in 1781. Clodion worked in the Rococo and Neoclassical styles. Image © JLF Antiquités, Saint-Ouen. Fair use license. via https://www.jeanlucferrand.com/produit/objets-d-art/clodion-paire-daiguieres-en-bronze-a-deux-patines-fin-du-xixeme-siecle/

Make your automobile smile. Buy one of these chromed Art Deco mascots for it. All of these from a recent Bonham’s auction.

“Stork” mascot in chromed metal, based on the famous design by Francois Bazin. Mounted on a period radiator cap. 1935. Maker not shown. Image © Bonhams 2001-2021. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/27140/lot/49/?category=list&length=12&page=5

“Serpent” mascot in nickel plated bronze, on a chromed locking radiator cap. 1920s. French. J. A. Bebin, maker. Image © Bonhams 2001-2021. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/27140/lot/54/?category=list&length=12&page=5

“Lady water-skier” mascot in chrome plated die-cast metal, mounted on a radiator cap. 1930s. American, made in Chicago by Krone and Sebek. Image © Bonhams 2001-2021. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/27140/lot/55/?category=list&length=12&page=5

Automobile mascot modeled as a winged nymph in the nude holding the chains of an aquaplane board. Chrome plated die-cast alloy mounted on a radiator cap. 1930s. British. Maker not given. Image © Bonhams 2001-2021. Fair use license. via https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/27140/lot/56/?category=list&length=12&page=5

Centerpieces by Elkington of Birmingham, England in silver and bronze. A pair of snazzy dessert stands, too. But you’ll see, they fit right in. Set a table you’ll have to live up to instead of the other way around.

Silvered bronze centerpiece with silvered bronze figures and chasing on the base and an original glass bowl. 1859. Victorian. Made in Birmingham, England by Elkington, Mason and Company. Maker’s marks: marked to the base. Image © 1stDibs.com, Inc. 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/dining-entertaining/centerpieces/elkington-mason-co-rare-important-historic-silvered-bronze-centerpiece/id-f_12625162/?utm_content=condensed&gclid=Cj0KCQjw5PGFBhC2ARIsAIFIMNc65CH7UexSTUc5uw7ym5rU1I0IT1roT0KER1qtKK06mUpEsozwAqUaAnp9EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Pair of sterling silver dessert stands, each of them featuring three gilt figures of Bast (the winged cat) appearing to hold up the central urn shaped column which stands on three clawed feet. Frosted and cut glass dishes. 1873. Victorian. Egyptian Revival. Made in Birmingham, England by Elkington. Maker’s marks hallmarks to the base. Image © 1stDibs.com, Inc. 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/dining-entertaining/sterling-silver/egyptian-revival-antique-sterling-silver-pair-of-dessert-stands-elkington/id-f_16494102/

Centerpiece in bronze. Shaped bronze base with two entwined palms sheltering two greyhounds or whippets, modeled after Pierre-Jules Menne’s “Two Whippets at Play” and a Villeroy and Boch plate in blue and white ceramic. Early 20th c. British. Made by Elkington of Birmingham, England. Image © 1stDibs.com, Inc. 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/dining-entertaining/centerpieces/villeroy-boch-plate-elkington-co-centerpiece-after-pj-mennes-two-whippets/id-f_20456382/#skuId=f_20456382S1

Wall-appliques (sconces) with a bit more than a little gilt bronze to put your best candles in. Each a little bit “different”, not the boring old kind your mother in law has.

Pair of two-light wall-appliques with burnished and matt gilding, each cast with a pair of winged sphinxes and garlands of flowers. Fitted for electricity. 1850-1875. Made in Paris. Gilt-bronze. after a design by Jean-Francois Forty. Image © 2021 Sotheby’s. Fair use license. via https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/furniture-clocks-works-of-art/a-pair-of-louis-xvi-style-gilt-bronze-two-light

Pair of four-light wall-appliques. 19th c. Louis XVI. French. Gilt-bronze. After a model by Pierre Gouthière (1723-1813). Attributed to Henry Dasson (1825-1896). Maker’s marks: One light inscribed to one side “Henry Dasson 1879”. Image © 1996 – 2021 | Jan’s & Company Fine French Antiques Inc, Fair use license. via https://jansantiques.com/Lot/jac2421_2.php

Pair of French Empire style figural two branch wall appliques or sconces. Vintage. Gilt bronze. Made in England. Image © 1stDibs.com, Inc. 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/lighting/sconces-wall-lights/rare-pair-of-empire-style-figural-two-branch-wall-appliques-sconces-gilt-bronze/id-f_17168302/

Gilt and patinated bronze ormolu two light wall-appliques (sconces). ca. 1770-1775. Louis XV/Louis XVI. Attributed to Jean-Louis Prieur. Image © Auction Technology Group Germany GmbH 2021. Fair use license. via https://www.lot-tissimo.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/rena/catalogue-id-renasc10000/lot-914b2400-44b9-4f60-bc6d-abc400864aec

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