Black Forest Brienz Smoking Stand, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
It's been in my family I don't know how long, but my uncle brought it from Switzerland probably in 1905, and I knew it all my life. I never was allowed to touch it, so I didn't know that the bear's head moves when you put something in it like a pipe or something. But it may be older than that because my family owned a restaurant and inn in Switzerland, so it probably came from there. So I don't really know its age.
APPRAISER:
In this business, we look at objects all the time, and to me, the best ones are the ones that just make your eyes dance around. And if you look at the bear on the bottom down here, I mean, he looks all ferocious and everything.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
And lucky for you and your family that your relatives would not let anybody play with him.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
Because it's got some moving parts on it.
GUEST:
Yes, it does.
APPRAISER:
One thing I noticed is this box has got a broken hinge. That would be easy enough to fix. And the other thing I noticed was that this little... this ashtray section here has been replaced.
GUEST:
I suppose so, that's what I figured.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, it probably had a covered wooden box or something…
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
…There to begin with. And he's just so well carved all the way around. The cool thing about him is you could put him in between two chairs…
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…And you could come at him from all four sides, and it would still look fabulous. And one last thing I noticed when I lifted up his head, you can still smell the pipe tobacco down in there.
GUEST:
(laughs) Yeah.
APPRAISER:
So that was probably a humidor. Most people refer to these as Black Forest carvings.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Which is really not exactly right, because there was a school of wood carvers in Brienz, Switzerland, and they started up in the early to mid-19th century. And by… 1905, they were very well established, and 1884, they actually started the Brienz School of Woodcarving to keep that tradition going, and it's still in existence. And if you look on a map, Brienz is right at the end of a lake, and it's in an area where the temperature is very temperate, and it's the kind of place that a lot of people would go to when they would go on the Grand Tour. And what happened was probably with your family living there, they probably knew somebody that did this and bought it from them, maybe even had it in the restaurant, although I kind of doubt it in a way because it's in such good condition. So for purposes of dating it, let's just say circa 1900, could be late 19th century. But it's so well done, that's what sort of elevates it another level above most of the carvings that you see like this. And in these, size matters, too. It's nice that it's a nice big one. It's carved out of probably walnut. His eyes are actually glass, and it was done in Brienz. I talked to several of my tablemates, and we feel like that a good insurance value on this would be $5,000.
GUEST:
Oh boy. (chuckles) Well, thank you.
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