Guillemin & Barye Sculpture with Stand
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GUEST:
In 1959, my parents and I were going down old highway 66, and along the road there, there were several motels. And there was one with an office light on, and there was a woman sitting in the office. And as we passed by, my dad and I both at the same time said, "Did you see that statue?" We went back and talked to the woman there, and we all fell in love with it, my mother and father and myself. So he said, "Would you be interested in selling that?" And she said, "Oh no, "it's been in my first husband's family and this is all I have left of his estate." So he said, "Well, I'm gonna leave my phone number, and please call me if you change your mind." About a week later, he got a phone call and she said, "You know, I'd like to talk to you about that." He said, "Great, I'll be out, and you just think about a price, name your price."
APPRAISER:
And what did he pay for it?
GUEST:
I really don't know, but it couldn't have been that much. He said, "What changed your mind?" And she said, "Well, I have a granddaughter "who I want to help go to college, "and this would go a long way towards getting her into college."
APPRAISER:
What's really interesting about this piece is it's actually by two different sculptors. It's signed here by …mile Guillemin, and over here, it's signed by the artist Alfred Barye. Alfred Barye is the one who sculpted the horse.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And Guillemin did the figure.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
So they worked in collaboration.
GUEST:
That's fascinating.
APPRAISER:
Because Barye was one of the leading sculptors of the 19th century who did animal sculptures.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
He was called an animalier, and his father was the most famous animal sculptor. His name was Antoine-Louis Barye. For many years, Alfred Barye would just sign "A. Barye"...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...hoping that people might confuse the two of them.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
Both of these artists, Barye and Guillemin, are French, and they were working in the later part of the 19th century. This piece was probably done around 1880. The piece was cast in France. It does have a title, "Return from the Hunt." This is probably the most famous bronze that these two artists worked on.
GUEST:
Oh my goodness!
APPRAISER:
You have this Arab horseman all totally decked out with his wonderful costume, with the game that he's captured here, and he has this great pose, which I think is really impressive.
GUEST:
He's really handsome, and he looks so arrogant, doesn't he? (laughter)
APPRAISER:
What's actually interesting about this piece is it's not made out of bronze.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If you look in certain areas, especially here, where it's rubbed down, you see a grayish color.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
And we call that gray metal spelter. It's sometimes called pot metal.
GUEST:
Spelter...
APPRAISER:
It's sometimes called white metal.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And this was a cheaper way to make sculpture in the 19th century. There are quite a number of these, they almost never appear in bronze.
GUEST:
We've always thought maybe this base was made for this piece.
APPRAISER:
I don't think so. It is a 19th century base, it's probably late 1890s, 1900, but it doesn't quite fit. And in the 19th century, when they made bases for these, they would have fit exactly, and the top might actually have been shaped to match the bottom of the piece. In terms of the value, a retail price would probably be about $7,000 to $8,000.
GUEST:
Oh! That's wonderful, that's fabulous.
APPRAISER:
The base is probably worth about $1,000 by itself.
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