20th Century Figurines and Sculptures

This curvilinear textural gold-gilt metal two-piece belt buckle or convertible pendant depicting pine cone and needle sprays was designed by Mimi di N in 1981, as noted in the signed...

Art glass vase sign: Daum Nancy France. Evidenced by this Daum sculptural colorless blown and hot-shaped lead-crystal heavy vessel vase, the finest irreproducible artistic works in the history of the French glass maker featured ornamental thick glass applications, while its most in-demand ArtDeco-period pieces were made between 1925 and 1935 with very few major pieces remaining in private hands and even less without damage. As a significant gift acquired from Don Jacques Daum in 1950, a similarly shaped, constructed and sized circa-1925 vase with "stylized foliage" motif is in the collection of the French Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris as Inventory #36309. A later-produced vase with a similar application-motif at the rim, but in a "Champagne" bubbled style, is in the published book about the Leo and Irina Esterkin acquisitions from 1910-1940 titled Daum Art Deco Glass--A Private Collection. On our prime-condition antique vase, applied transparent glass is styled in high relief into a flowing undulating motif that evolved from Daum's Art Nouveau foliage designs. The angular and curvilinear shapes of this vessel epitomize the bold vases, bowls and sculptures for which Daum is best known. Its tiny pencil-etched signature on the side near the bottom reads "Daum (plus the Lorraine-cross symbol) Nancy France", which resembles some published signatures since 1925. Revealing how ahead of its time this particular design was--after WWII in 1945 coinciding with the revitalization of the French glass industry--Daum used...

Like Alexander Calder's handmade wire jewelry since 1929, whose smallest one-of-a-kind sculptural subjects ranged from aerial acrobats and dancers to mono...

Louise Nevelson, an American modern sculptor who enhanced found objects throughout the 20th Century, in the 1980s transformed found, crushed and gilt m...