1915 Malvina Hoffman "Boy and Panther Cub"
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GUEST:
I bought it at a garage sale.
APPRAISER:
Really?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
How much?
GUEST:
Two dollars.
APPRAISER:
You really sprung for it, huh? You go to a lot of garage sales, you just bought it because you liked it, you collect things?
GUEST:
I collect things and I liked it the minute I saw him, and taking it out of the box for the garage sale, I said, "I'll take that." And I asked him how much it was, and he said, "Well, since it's got a little break in it, I'll let you have it for two dollars."
APPRAISER:
Well, it's by a very famous woman artist, an American artist named Malvina Hoffman.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
She worked primarily in New York. She was born in 1885. She studied in New York at the Art Students' League, and she actually studied in Paris with the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin. She's most famous for a series of about 100 sculptures that she did for the Field Museum in Chicago, where she went around the world and she sculpted various natives in life-size, and they're at the Field Museum. What's interesting about this piece is it's very early. It's actually dated 1915.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
And it was made as a fountain.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
There's a little spigot over here that the water drips down. And there's actually a life-sized version of this in Cedar Rapids in the museum there. And they made a few versions in the life-size, and then this was made as sort of a house/apartment size. It's very clearly signed, "Malvina Hoffman." And it also has a mark of the foundry, which is the Roman Bronze Works, which is in New York City, and they were among the leading foundries in this country at the time.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
It's wonderful, this interplay of these two figures, it's called "Boy with a Panther Cub," and he's some kind of a little god. Up here, he has two little horns. Maybe a follower of Bacchus or something like that. He's holding grapes, which is a symbol of Bacchus, the god of wine.
GUEST:
What are the heads on the base? Are they lions' heads, or...?
APPRAISER:
That's a good question, but they do look like lion heads, and these are called lion paw feet.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
It was made as a fountain, and it was outdoors. Your piece was outdoors at some time, and what probably happened is it developed this very, very heavy patina. Somewhere along the way, the patina got stripped off. Somebody must have cleaned it down to the bare bronze, but since it was outside, you get a lot of pitting on the surface, so the condition is really not that good. Also, the arm up here is cracked. In this condition, it's actually still worth about $2,000 or $3,000 in a retail setting.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
You could put a new patina on it, and there are professional restorers and conservators who do that work, but it still always will be restored. I would think to do a proper job restoring it would be at least $1,000, and if you restored it, it would probably be worth in the $5,000 or $6,000 range.
GUEST:
Goodness!
APPRAISER:
Now, if it was in real and perfect condition, it would probably be in a retail situation between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST:
Oh, well. (laughing) I probably wouldn't have got it for two dollars either.
APPRAISER:
Well, maybe with three, it would have been three or four dollars!
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