Sculptures

Collectible sculpture encompasses any three-dimensional work created for artistic or decorative purposes, distinguished from monumental sculpture by its intimate scale and private destination. From the bourgeois drawing room to the connoisseur's cabinet, these pieces adorned mantelpieces, bookshelves and display cases as testaments to the taste and status of their owner. The XIX e century represents the golden age of this production: the mechanisation of surmoulage and the democratisation of bronze allowed houses such as Barbedienne, Susse Frères and Thiébaut to widely distribute figurative, animal and allegorical works, while terracotta remained the favoured material of French and Italian regional workshops.

Materials encountered include bronze, terracotta, patinated plaster, white or coloured marble, and more rarely ivory or zinc alloys known as « régule », often mistaken for bronze. France, Italy, Germany and England dominated production between 1830 and 1914, each with distinct specialities: French animaliers in the tradition of Barye and Mène, neo-classical busts in Tuscan marble, and Viennese gilt-bronze Romantic groups.

For a collector, examination focuses first on the quality of the casting or modelling, the authenticity of the patina — a re-applied patina is identifiable by its suspicious uniformity — and the presence of an engraved signature or founder's stamp. On edited bronzes, the series number and hallmark guarantee the age of the casting. The condition of the edges, left untrimmed, and the consistency of the original base complete the assessment.