Posted 10 years ago
austrohung…
(584 items)
This porcelain dove shaped candy-box is one of the best art-déco items in the house (appart from the Lötz Tango stuff), and it is with no doubt pure Art Déco. The shape of the dove has been highly stylized and it is SOOOO full of charm!
It was designed by Édouard-Marcel Sandoz for the French porcelaine company Haviland (that was founded by an American entrepreneur in the middle of the 19th Century). We think there were two editions for this design, but unfortunately I cannot find much information about this dove - box or even Sandoz on the internet, which sounds really crazy. So if anyone knows when this box was made we'd be so thankful to him/her! We know Sandoz was working for Havland between 1915 and 1945 but it's vistually impossible to find out an approxiate date for the design of the different pieces.
I am including a icture of the fully signed base and another one showing the box open, which for some reason I find pretty amazing.
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Édouard-Marcel Sandoz (1881 - 1971) was a Swiss sculptor. After studying chemistry (he was the son of the owner of the Sandoz pharmaceutical company), he decided to turn to sculpture. He studied for 3 years at the L'Ecole de Industrial Arts in Geneva then moved to Paris where he studied at the Ecole d'Beaux-Arts. During the First World War, due to the shortage of stone and bronze, Sandoz turned to porcelain for his sculptures and thus began his thirty year association with the Haviland Limoges company. For them he produced many distinctive highly stylized objects in the form of animals. All of his sculptures are characterized by a geometric form which is strongly influenced by both the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. His sculptures show a unique and lively personal style and place him firmly at the top of the 20th century Animaliers (along with Francois Pompon and Rembrandt Bugatti).
STUNNING !! This is very special and beautiful:)!
Thanks Sean!!! I am so glad you think so about it.
Your very welcome austro !! Oh yes indeed that is how I really feel about this stunner:)
Sandoz's designs are cute, really cute!
Love the puffed up chest.
Thanks for your love and comment, vet!
Hahaha, I was looking at the puffed up chest (thinking how intelligent of him was keeping both chest and head in the lid) and suddenly came to my mind that Sandoz is the precursor of those terrible Avon figurine-bottles :) LOL
LOL!!! austro im laughing so hard at the comment you had made about the avon bottles!!!
Thanks Hunter, Lisa and Manikin for your loves!!!
Very fun piece! Anything in the mail yet?
Thanks Moonstone and Amber!
@Amber: not yet, but I am sure next week there will be :) After all, it has to cross half the planet! But I'm so impatient now!
Thanks for loving it, DrFluffy!!!
This weekend we visited one of the most expensive antique stores in Barcelona -it didn't look like it was that expensive- and they had a simmilar one in blue... bt they were asking 1500 euros for it! :/ Some dealers are just crazy! we also asked for the prices of some Scandinavian items I knew well... always around three times the actual price.
I wish I could live in some place where antiques had a fair price!!!
I still love this and had to relove again austro!! some day I would have one of these in blue or even black if its out there :)
Browsing through these old posts is sooooooooooooo worth it. WOW. This piece has it all. Little dove, wherever you are, I'm dreaming of you tonight.