My heart belongs to Chiparus Dolly Sisters

THIS magnificent bronze and ivory figure by the great Romanian-born Art Deco sculptor Demetre Chiparus may not be unique – numerous editions would have been cast – but the two exotic vaudeville dancers it depicts surely were. They were the Dolly Sisters, the original dolly birds, alluringly naughty legends in their own lifetime on both sides of the Atlantic, who drove their fabulously rich suitors mad with desire.

The Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, and his close friend Edward “Fruity” Metcalfe were both reported to have had affairs with the identical twins. Media magnate William Randolph Hearst and entrepreneur “Diamond” Jim Brady were captivated, while Harry Selfridge, the widowed American founder of the Oxford Street store, was said to “bat the Dolly sisters back and forth like ping-pong balls” between himself and newspaper tycoon Max Beaverbook.

Selfridge’s indulgence knew no bounds, He squandered millions on the twins who were

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Chiparus and Preiss - doyens among Art Deco sculptors

by Christopher Proudlove©
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The new house is causing a problem: it's just not conducive to anything older than antiques dating from the Twenties.

This means that our old oak looks somewhat out of place and I dread to think what is going to happen to our Victorian knickknacks.

Of course, the answer is simple: sell it all and replace it with Art Deco. Easy, so long as funds permit, which is where the main problem lies. Worryingly, I suspect that with trends being as they are, the cash raised from selling the Victoriana wouldn't stretch far enough to make the project a proposition.

If funds were not an issue, I'd buy bronze and ivory figures like the examples pictured here.

I think it's a safe bet to say that they'll never be any less affordable than they are now but sadly they are already the preserve of only those collectors with deep pockets.

Two names stand above all others in this fascinating field of Art Deco: Demetre Chiparus (1888-1947) and Ferdinand Preiss (1882-1943) their products coming at a pivotal moment in the early 20th century between two world wars.

By then, the sinuous flower girls of the Art Nouveau era had withered and died, to be replaced by the athletic, erotic and futuristic subjects that are today so evocative of the period.

Ironically, however, when they were first seen, the more serious-minded art critics were dismissive of the figures, some of them suggesting they considered them to be in bad taste.

This is particularly the case with the Rumanian-born Chiparus who barely figures in contemporary articles on the decorative arts, with the result that today's collectors have scant information about his life. Indeed, some publications claim his dates of birth and death are unknown.

Chiparus was schooled in Italy and then Paris just before the outbreak of the First World War where he was a pupil of the sculptors Anonin Mercier and Jean Boucher.

His first exhibition was at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français in 1914. He showed a number of small sculptures in bronze and received an honourable mention, an accolade that was much coveted among the artistic fraternity.

Another recipient of the award was Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Chiparus subsequently went on to experiment with the process of combining painted bronze with ivory, a technique known as chryselephantine.

The use of ivory for faces, hands and bare flesh gave the figures more natural, lifelike and tactile and adds greatly to their exotic appeal.

Chiparus became a naturalised Frenchman, married and had several children, some of whom feature in his figures.

However, he was fascinated by the dancers in Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, who entertained the cafe society in Paris, Leon Bakst’s stage designs and subsequently the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922 which heavily influenced his designs and subject matter.

Some Chiparus figures were made in spelter cold-painted to represent bronze and ivorene, an early plastic, which was cast and also painted in bright colours.

Other examples of his work can be seen in the bronze figures commissioned by the firm of Arthur Goldscheider which were also reproduced in pottery.

Authentic examples of Chiparus brionzes (although by no means all) are each etched with this signature in the marble base and some show the name of the foundry where they were cast. However, there are many fakes.

Another distinguishing feature is the long slender fingers of the subjects. Look carefully and the detail of each fingernail is also carved delicately in the original, a feature the faker overlooks.


Johann Philipp Ferdinand Preiss was born in Erbach in Germany and clearly inherited his mother's skills as her family was engaged in the local cottage industry of ivory-carving.

His father was a hotelier but died when Preiss was 15, whereupon the boy was apprenticed to a master ivory carver whose family took him in.

By 1905, Preiss had emerged as a gifted carver in his own right and after a period studying in Milan, he joined a number of carvers working in a factory run by Carl Haebler in Baden-Baden.

Among them was Arthur Kassler and the two became friends and subsequently business partners in a workshop in Berlin where they produced turned and carved ivory for the local furniture and decorative trade.

The first figures combining bronze and ivory were introduced in 1910, by which time the company was trading as PK.

By the time of the First World War, the firm employed six people, including a bronze caster but was forced to close in 1914 on the outbreak.

Popular throughour Europe

Preiss and Kassler reopened the business in 1920, concentrating on producing a wide variety of exquisite figures designed by Preiss mounted on plinths of onyz or marble which were popular throughout Europe, particularly Britain, and the US.

In addition to nude studies, bathers, dancers, couples, children and historical figures, Priess also produced a series of Olympic-inspired figures showing men and women engaged in such sports as swimming, tennis and golf. They pre-date any connection with Hitler and the master race.

Preiss suffered a brain tumour and died in 1943 and the firm PK firm died with him. The company's workshop and its stock of samples was destroyed by fire in a ombing raid on Berlin in 1945.

As with all other bronze and ivory figures, those by Preiss have been faked mercilessly.

Advice to prospective buyers is to learn as much as you can first before parting with your hard-earned cash. Visit auction sales and expert dealers and handle what's on offer to get the feel of the real thing.

Ivory that has turned yellow with age should be avoided since it lowers value, as does age-cracked or damaged ivory, particularly on the faces of figures.

And finally, ask for written proof of authenticity should you buy from a dealer. If he declines to guarantee a figure is what he says it is, chances are both it and he are wrong 'uns. You, in turn, are safer keeping your cash in the building society.

Pictures show, top:

The Flame Leaper, a well known Preiss figure of a young woman leaping over flames holding flaming torches in each hand. She’s worth £12,000-15,000

Below, left to right:

Cabaret Girl, a Preiss figure wearing a bathing suit and cap. She’s worth £6,000-8,000

Perfect Preiss: Left to right, Golfer, Hoop Girl, Sonny Boy and Bather with parasol. Preiss was a master at capturing the natural expressions of his models. Each is worth £4,000-6,000

Miss Kita, a dancing girl with beaded top and headdress and stylish frilled skirt. She’s worth £8,000-10,000

Bottom, left to right:

The Chiparus bronze Kneeling Dancer, the figure wearing a hooded cat suitand standing n a brown marble base. It dates from the 1920s and is worth £12,000-15,000

This Chiparus dancing girl has an outfit cold-painted in gold and silver stands on brown mottled marble base and is worth £8,000-10,000

Almeria, a Chiparus dancing girls worth £10,000-12,000

Finest China - made in England

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by Christopher Proudlove©
It was during the 17th century that Europeans first became aware of Chinese porcelain decorated in tones of blue, thanks largely to the trading and importing activities of the Dutch East India Company.

Porcelain was regarded as the trappings of the exotic and the rich, and it was celebrated whenever possible.

Dutch Old Master artists painted still lifes to include the porcelain treasured by their patrons rich enough to afford to commission them and houses were bedecked with the stuff as a show of wealth that came to symbolise the three ideals: Peace, Prosperity and Plenty - all good aspects of a successful nation.

The huge amounts of the less valuable blue and white decorated Chinese porcelain imported into England in the 1740s, clearly indicated this was the usable everyday items for the wealthy and mercantile classes of the day, particularly in the growing habit of the drinking of tea.

Polychrome - or multi-coloured - ware was traditionally the most highly regarded type of decoration on the porcelain, but nevertheless it was the blue and white wares that were to predominate in the fashion of the imitation of Chinese designs in England at the time.

It was not long, therefore, before the entrepreneurial English porcelain manufacturers of the day began to take the somewhat risky opportunity to try to create a Western alternative to the Chinese wares and redirect some of the fortunes that were being spent into their own bank balances.

In doing so, they were following the examples of the already established continental manufactories, notably Meissen, who were quick to develop their own naturalistic style that was to follow in England within a decade.

The first to try their hand were the London manufactories of Bow, Chelsea, Limehouse and Vauxhall.

Each developed its own quirky shapes and decoration, often mirroring the localised potting traditions of their neighbours who were engaged in producing domestic earthenware and London delft pieces (themselves copies of wares imported from the Low Countries.

Lengthy experimentations with clays, firing temperatures and types of glaze resulted in a myriad of differences to the colour of the porcelain.

For their part, designers adopted the extravagance of the fashionable rococo silver of the period to produce a purely English style and feel to these early "Chinese" pieces.

A forerunner in the process was the Worcester factory, where on the June 4, 1751, after many trials and experiments in an apothecary's shop, Dr. John Wall and William Davis succeeded in signing up 12 other businessmen of standing to finance the Worcester Tonquin Manufactory.

However, the start was beset by early difficulties and it was only after the premises, stock, tools and effects of the failed Benjamin Lund's Bristol porcelain works were acquired in 1752 that Worcester production began to gather momentum.

The acquisition produced an extra bonus. Worcester also inherited Lund's decorators, many of whom had originally trained in the delft, Limehouse and possibly even Bow factories and they had an understanding of the artistic tradition of painting which Worcester made full use of.

Interestingly, the factory was constantly advertising for more painters who developed their mastery of using the underglaze cobalt blue to a point where it was in no way inferior to the Chinese wares they were copying.

The fashion of the day demanded pottery decorated with Chinese designs - chinoiserie, as it is called - and Worcester's senior decorators were given their heads, resulting in the factory maintaining a successful grasp on the market of the day.

Examples of these early purely chinoiserie designs are found on very few recorded shapes most of which are teawares, while ornamental wares are exceptionally rare.

Among the rarest is a creamboat of which only two examples are known to exist. One of them can be seen in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain, marked in low relief with the Latin "Wigornia" for Worcester. Its value is beyond measure.

Important trading gap

Porcelain shaped like scallop shells were scarce to find in Chinese porcelain at the time and the Worcester factory was able to fill this important trading gap, one of the prettiest being decorated with the highly unusual design of a bird sitting on a floral branch.

However, Worcester were by no means alone in the market.

In 1744, Huguenot silversmith Nicholas Sprimont, who had fled Liege and settled in London, entered into a partnership with fellow Huguenot Charles Gouyn to produce fashionable porcelain for Royal and aristocratic London society.

Their factory was built in what was then the village of Chelsea, and their early wares were gaily coloured domestic porcelain to appeal to such an elite market. Consequently, blue and white Chelsea porcelain is rare.

Sadly, the partnership was beset by differences and in 1749 Sprimont and Gouyn quarrelled and split, Gouyn moving back to St. James's where he had been a jeweller.

He continued to manufacture a series of porcelain figures and animals and
scent bottles and seals which he then mounted beautifully in precious metals.

Sprimont, who suffered bouts of ill health, sold the factory to James Cox in 1769 who in turn sold out less than a year later to William Duesbury, the founder of the Derby factory.

The Chelsea factory was sold in 1784 and what small production that remained there was moved to Derby - masters of copying oriental wares, notably the ubiquitous Imari.

 

Chelsea - a victim of its own success

 

In 1749, massive growth caused the factory to move to new premises in Lawrence Street, and a revitalised business was advertised in The Daily Advertiser on January 9, 1750.

The advertisement read: "The Manufacturer of China Ware at Chelsea takes the liberty to aquaint the Publick, that he has been employed since his last Sale in making a considerable parcel, of which the Assortments are so far advanced, that he hopes to be in a Condition to offer it to Sale in the Month of March next; it will consist of a variety of Services for Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, Porringers, Sauce Boats, Basons, and Ewers, Ice-Pails, Tureens, Dishes and Plates of different Forms and Patterns, and of a great Variety of pieces for ornament in a Taste entirely new". Where is it all now, I wonder.

The marketing push coincided with a new porcelain recipe giving the body a "voluptuousness … highly pleasing to the senses of touch and sight" as one commentator described it. Less than 20 years later, the business was sold.

Pictures show: Top
Wonderful Worcester:
Left to right, a small Worcester mug or coffee can decorated with children playing in a mountainous landscape, worth £300-400, a small bowl decorated with Chinese buildings and bamboo, worth £1,200-1,500 and a pretty little butterboat decorate with oriental flowers and insects, worth £800-1,200

Below, left to right:
A fine and early Worcester tankard decorated with the so-called Walk in the Garden pattern and worth £5,000-6,000. It dates from 1758-60

A rare early Worcester pickle leaf dish, circa 1756, decorated with peonies and a bird perched on a rock. It's worth £3,000-4,000

A rare early Worcester teapot and cover worth £8,000-10,000. It dates from circa 1754 and is decorated with a Chinese garden known by collectors as the Zig Zag Fence pattern