1925 Chana Orloff Marble Bust of Cécile de Brunhoff
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GUEST:
I bought it at an estate sale.
APPRAISER:
And how long ago was that?
GUEST:
It was about 30 years ago.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm. Did you know who the artist was when you bought it?
GUEST:
No, I didn't. Three years ago, we found the signature in the back and the date. She's a Jewish sculptress. Her name was Chana Orloff. And uh she was born in 1888 and uh passed away in 1968.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And that's as much as I know. That's it.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. Okay, well, that's a good amount. Her name was actually pronounced "Khana" Orloff.
GUEST:
"Khana" Orloff.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And she was born in what's now Ukraine.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And in 1905, her family fled to Palestine.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Her father was a schoolteacher, and in Palestine he became a farmer. And Chana took in sewing and needlework to help support her family. And she was so good, they sent her to Paris and she studied needlework and then eventually got into sculpture.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
She was very successful. She did a portrait of Matisse, there's a portrait of Picasso, and just many, many other people. This is carved marble, and you can imagine how difficult it is to carve.
GUEST:
Oh, I know, yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
She had a chisel and a hammer and very, very intensive work that's involved. It's made out of this wonderful marble that has sort of a pinkish cast to it, and it's a natural material. So there are flaws in the marble. And what's so wonderful about this is that it seems to be coming out of the stone itself. So you have this rough stone here and then this smooth uh figure itself and this textured hair in the back. It's signed "Chana Orloff" and it's dated 1925. She made quite a number of these. She also had them cast in bronze. And the problem with the bronze is that many were done under her auspices, but many were done posthumously and unauthorized.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So there are issues with her work. There's no question that it's an original piece. So who is this woman? There's something that's called a catalogue raisonné that shows the works of artists. And on page 222, I found this illustrated. (chuckles) And, and it said this is a portrait of Cécile de Brunhoff.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
She had two children, and she made up stories for the children. And one of the stories was about a little elephant and it's the book that became Babar.
GUEST:
Oh, yes, yes!
APPRAISER:
So it has value as a really great Orloff, and then it has the extra value of being of the woman who made the Babar series. At a gallery, I would put it in the $30,000 to $50,000 range.
GUEST:
Oh, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. (chuckles softly)
APPRAISER:
I forgot to ask you, what did you pay for it?
GUEST:
I paid, it's... It was either $75 or $100 for it 30 years ago. (laughs) Yeah.
APPRAISER:
It's a wonderful thing.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
Thanks for coming in.
GUEST:
Thank you for having me.
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