Explore the Art of the Past

After Georges Braque (1882–1963), Astéria.

A very fine embossed print, gilded with 23-carat fine gold, produced after a creation by Georges Braque by Baron Heger de Löwenfeld, the artist’s collaborator in the realisation of his celebrated jewellery.

The work belongs to the suite “Hommage aux bijoux de Braque”, devoted to the jewellery creations conceived by Georges Braque at the end of his life and transposed in relief by Heger de Löwenfeld.

On thick, deckle-edged paper, the composition is treated in deep embossing: the motif, entirely gilded in fine gold, genuinely stands out from the sheet, lending it an almost sculptural character.

The subject, Astéria, belongs to the mythological repertoire so dear to Braque in the final years of his oeuvre. The figure is reduced to an ensemble of powerful, pared-down lines, midway between drawing, sculpture and jewel.

Example numbered 186/200 in pencil.

Signature of Heger de Löwenfeld in pencil, lower left.

“G. Braque” signature in relief / blind stamp within the sheet.

Numerous blind-stamped inscriptions in the paper:

“ASTERIA”; “Or fin 23 carats”; “Hommage aux bijoux de Braque”; “Sculpt. Heger de Löwenfeld”

Edition produced circa 1970–1971.

Examples from this suite are notably documented with the publisher Pierre de Tartas in Paris.

Presented in an elegant bespoke museum-quality frame under glass, the subject set on a raised mount, with anti-reflective and anti-UV glass. Oak borders.

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“L’Apiculteur et les Indiens” — a print by Gérard Garouste, Hors Commerce, signed and numbered 8/10.

The Minotaur emerges from a Greek-inspired setting, meander and foliate scrolls drawn in black line, almost architectural in character.
The face escapes this austerity: hand-painted in browns and pinks that soften the figure.

In Garouste’s work, the “Indian” is never an incidental detail. Since his play “Le Classique et l’Indien” (1977), he has embodied the painter’s double: set against the Classical — reason, order — the Indian carries the wild, the mad, the uncontrollable. A theme he would explore for more than thirty years, up to his “Indiennes” series.

The full title of this print echoes that of a book Michel Onfray devoted to his painting in 2009.

Presented in museum-quality framing, with anti-reflective and anti-UV glass.

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Spectacular Italian chandelier in Murano glass, composed of a multitude of long crystalline glass rods with prismatic section, arranged in a cascade and of varying heights.

The composition, particularly elegant and sculptural, forms an animated and airy silhouette, characteristic of the great Italian glass design of the second half of the twentieth century Venini, and of its productions notably including compositions using prismatic elements of the Triedri type, developed from the late 1950s onwards. The glass elements, of great transparency, offer magnificent plays of light and reflections when illuminated.

The chandelier features a silvered/chromed structure. The warm reflections visible in the photographs come solely from the lighting.

A very fine piece of character, monumental and rare, particularly suited to a contemporary interior, an entrance hall, a dining room or a space benefiting from a generous ceiling height.

Italy, circa 1960-1970.

Electrification redone by a professional.

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An elegant pair of postmodern/Hollywood Regency style table lamps, crafted in 1980s Murano glass and brass.

These light fittings are distinguished by a “totem” structure composed of a stack of various hand-blown glass elements, offering an interplay of textures and contrasts:

* White opaline glass: globes and a domed base in satin opaline glass

* Gold-leaf textured glass: intermediate discs in solid moulded blown glass, one translucent with radiating ribs, the other enriched with gold dust inclusions according to the traditional Murano technique.

* Geometric elements: Murano glass cubes that structure the architectural silhouette of the whole. The mount and separating rings are in gilt brass, accentuating the elegance of the materials.

The design is characteristic of the high-end Murano production of this period, in the spirit of houses such as Barovier & Toso or Mazzega.

Excellent state of preservation.

Electrics fully overhauled and refurbished.

Presented here with conical grey/green shades.