19th Century Italian Oval Carved Gilt Wood Birdcage

A carefully constructed 19th century Chinese birdcage with original hand-forged iron hanger. From Shanxi Province, circa 1880. M739.

A large 19th century pewter and wood decorative birdcage shaped as a French medieval château. This exquisite French château birdcage is a definite must in terms of decorative accents...

Four-leaf partition screen in carved wood and painted in the Bérain style. Each panel bears on the top a woman's head wearing a veil and surrounded by a shell motif. The upper part i...

This is a finely carved late 19th century Indian Anglo-Raj Hardwood Screen that was fabricated for the export market. The four-panel screen features four distinctly carved floral panels to the front and four matching panels...

A powerful and dramatic pair of Italian neoclassical carved and gilt wood mythical animal figures on faux painted bases, mid 19th century or earlier, Italy. The fantastic beasts are well carved, with dramatic wings that follow the sensuous curve of the neck, and a sinuous body ends in an eel-like tail gracefully curled in upon itself. The bearded heads feature a flattened snout with sharp teeth and a lolling tongue, and pointed horse ears and mane. The long forelegs stretched out in front of them and ending in pawed and clawed feet. The beasts have characteristics of several different mythical animals, making them hard to positively identify. The most likely candidates would be dragons, hippocampi, or chimeras. The beasts are unfinished to the back, indicating they were originally part of a relief decoration, possibly from a mirror. They have now been mounted to wooden bases faux painted to imitate porphyry. They would make perfect bookends or mantle sculptures.

This one-of-a-kind museum quality Italian Empire Period (early 19th Century) room divider folding screen is made up of six rectangular solid wood panels, each richly painted and lacq...