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ARMOR BRONZE BOOKENDS BEAUTIFUL COPPER GILT PAIR
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ARMOR BRONZE BOOKENDS BEAUTIFUL COPPER GILT PAIR
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Auction Description: ARMOR BRONZE CO. This pair depicts the single form of the famous Dante Alighieri the Italian poet from Florence . His central work , the Divina Commedia ( Divine Comedy , originally called "Commedia"), is considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature . In Italian he is known as "the Supreme Poet" ( il Sommo Poeta ). Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio are also known as "the three fountains" or "the three crowns". Dante is also called the "Father of the Italian language". It is my pleasure to offer this pair being one of the most difficult to find Armor Bronze âeoeDanteâe bookends to this online community. Made in the early 1920âe(tm)s, this zinc or similar alloy clad set is not only one of the finest but also one of the rarest seen sets made by Armor. I personally have owned this set only once in 39 years of collecting and selling antiques and have never seen a matched pair in that time . I also have never seen this set in any antique book or bookend reference guides . Pompeian, Galvano, and Armor have been noted as the premier companies who produced the clad type items using a electroplating process instead of external molds. This set is typical of the early process of starting with a plaster molded object blank which contained a metal wick protruding from the bottom. The blank was coated with a postive electrical attracting media, attached to postive/negative current and then submersed into a liquid metal of choice. Over hours and sometimes several days the plaster becomes coated with a thin layer of metal that creates a more durable outer shell, than simply plaster. The artist then would takes several steps in preparing the object for gilding and painting. The rest is history!!. With minimum care these pieces of useful art have adorned books for 80 plus years, void from dropping them or bumping them with heavy objects. Dante is displayed in a set with a shoulder up bust and is very simple and pure in design. He wears the simple flowing cape and Italian hat with ear coverings hanging to the shoulders. His hat displays a Acanthus leaf head band seen only on this earliest set. Why the Acanthus leaf band was used by the Armor artists is certainly unknown, for typically you would only see these used relating to the ornamentation of the Corinthian and Composite orders . But needless to say this is not nearly as unusual as Armors choice to copper gilt this set over a zinc base cladding. Most sets are bronze clad . The reason I am sure about this is t is one spot on the back of Danteâe(tm)s hat that contacted upright books, that the copper gilt has worn ever so slightly through the copper gilt, exposing a small spot about 1/32 of a inch semi-circle area exposing the shiny silver inner cladding which is more than likey zinc. These bookends have withstood the test of time and a lot of handling over the years by the previous owner, for all of the high points and ridges are very shiny copper, but completely intact. I purchased this set along with another and they are in an almost polished condition also, but the deep creases are very aged patina of near black in color. T are no broken or missing parts and they retain their original felts and stickers as shown in the pictures. Both are high quality, first rate pieces with appropriate wear and will be great for display. One would be hard pressed to find this set, much less in better condition. These impressive style set measures a little taller than 5 inches, 3 1/2inches in depth, and 5 ¾ inches wide. I doubt that these will be seen for some time, so now is your chance to acquire these old and desirable pieces . Please look at the actual photos below to see what is being offered. The seventh picture will display the very deep high relief exposure of the deep greenish/black vertigris color that has taken many years to obtain. These will be ideal for the high end serious Collector and Bookend Enthusia...
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