Franz Bergman Foundry Vienna Bronze Lamp, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
It's my grandparents'. They bought it as a wedding present, I believe, or a wedding anniversary gift, in Chicago, at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.
APPRAISER:
And you've had it prominently displayed in your home?
GUEST:
Unfortunately, no. It's been in a vacuum cleaner box for a little bit, way too long, I think.
(chuckling)
APPRAISER:
So what you have is, we call, a Vienna bronze. It's a Vienna bronze table lamp. You have the largest one I've ever seen, and I think it's the giant economy size.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So it's really nice. I mean, most of them are about this high.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And they were made in the early part of the 20th century by the Franz Bergmann foundry. It's very clearly marked on the back here. A two-handled vase with the "B" for Bergmann in there.
GUEST:
I see.
APPRAISER:
You also have this wonderful thing here.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
I hope you haven't tried to plug it in at all.
GUEST:
No, I'm not that... no. I'm not that brave yet, you know.
APPRAISER:
You can have this rewired. This has no effect on the value.
GUEST:
Oh, is that true?
APPRAISER:
It was like a night light. And it's made out of bronze. And then we call it cold-painted. So most bronzes have a patina that's chemically applied, but this is actually painted with oil paints.
GUEST:
Really.
APPRAISER:
And the Bergmann foundry was known for the amazing detail of the casting itself, the casting and the finishing, and then the way it's painted. And you have these lovely details here like the shoes, this little vase that's knocked over. It's really a wonderful subject, and it's a very intimate kind of scene of this fellow praying. And these Arab subject matters are also very, very desirable. Bergmann was the foundry. We used to think that Franz Bergmann was actually the sculptor, but he wasn't. He owned the foundry, and he had artists and craftsmen working for him.
GUEST:
Really, okay.
APPRAISER:
And we really don't know the names of them. There is one artist that we do know named Carl Kauba. But when Kauba did the things, he was a well-known sculptor in his own right, so he would sign them.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
They went out of business and then in the last, I think, ten or 15 years, somebody else bought the foundry and they started making them again. A lot of people ask us, "So how's the art market?" And basically when you're at the top of a particular market, the market's very strong. So when you have a piece like this that is such a massive scale and has such a great presence, it's going to bring top dollar still, even though a lot of the other Vienna bronzes have decreased in value.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
A retail price on this would probably be in the $10,000 range.
GUEST:
Really? $10,000—that's phenomenal. I'm going to get... take it out of the box that I had it in, I'll tell you that, you know. Wow.
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