Antonin Mercié "Joan of Arc" Bronze, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
It belonged to my Aunt Merle, my Great-Aunt Merle, my grandfather's sister. She was an opera singer, and I believe it was given to her by a friend who was also in the opera business, but it was a deep, dark secret who gave it to her. She never wanted to say.
APPRAISER:
And about how long ago was it?
GUEST:
Probably in the '20s, 1920s that she got it. She sang abroad and she also sang for the Met in New York. After she died, my father brought back things from her place, and Joan's mine, and she's very precious to me.
APPRAISER:
And so you call her Joan.
GUEST:
I call her Joan.
APPRAISER:
A very close, friendly relationship.
GUEST:
We're good friends. However, she's in the corner all the time.
APPRAISER:
This is a great depiction of Joan of Arc, and of course, being here in New Orleans, it's wonderful that...
GUEST:
Very appropriate.
APPRAISER:
She was the Maid of Orlèans. She's just a wonderful, famous, historical figure, and she was a participant in the Hundred Years' War, and of course, as everybody knows, she was burned at the stake in the 15th century. She was one of the patron saints of France. I love the way she's depicted, hands folded, looking up towards the heavens, in her full battle gear. This is what's so wonderful about French sculpture, is the amount of detail that's in the piece. Very clear modeling of all her armor, all the little rivets, and all the details, and I love her shoes.
GUEST:
Her shoes, aren't they something?
APPRAISER:
I'll point out the signature of the artist, his name was Antonin Merciè. And as you can see, it's just fully modeled with her spurs, here's her great helmet, here's her sword. Wonderful buckles. So it's really a spectacular depiction of this great, great heroine. Merciè was one of the leading artists in France in the middle part of the 19th century. He was a phenomenal success, he won the famous Prix de Rome, he exhibited at a number of salons.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
He won gold medals at a number of international exhibitions. His most famous work is "David and Goliath," which is in the Musèe d'Orsay in Paris.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
This was commissioned in 1890, and there's a monumental-sized version of this in the town of Domrémy-de-Pucelle-- sorry for the French-- in France. So do have any idea the value of it?
GUEST:
My father had it appraised back in the '80s for around $2,000, but I've never had it appraised.
APPRAISER:
The market is not particularly strong for these, even though it's such a spectacular subject by the leading artist of the 19th century, but I think in a retail setting, it would probably be between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST:
Well, that's nice to know. We mostly just wanted to find out information about her. I have no intentions of selling her.
APPRAISER:
Great.
GUEST:
She's just a special family heirloom.
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