Recently I have been going through a closet of mine and ran across these lovely Art Deco plaques and was wondering if someone could tell me a good insurance value to place on these.
DH Chaparus is very collectible and have no problem finding values for his figural statues online but am having difficulty pricing these wall plaques out. Because they were not sold on the free market and primarily used as building emblems, I feel they are rare.
Some information about the artist:
Demetre Haralamb Chiparus (also known
as Dumitru Chipăruş; 16 September 1886, Dorohoi, Romania - 22 January
1947, Paris, France) was a Romanian Art Deco era sculptor who lived and worked
in Paris.
Sculptures of Dimitri Chiparus represent the classical manifestation of Art
Deco style in decorative bronze ivory sculpture. Traditionally, four factors of
influence over the creative activity of the artist can be distinguished: Serge
Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, ancient Egyptian art, and French theatre. Early motion
pictures were among his more notable subjects and were typified by figures with
a long, slender, stylized appearance. Some of his sculptures were directly
inspired by Russian dancers. For example, faces of “Persian Dance” figures
reveal the likenesses of Vaslav Nijinsky and Ida Rubinstein, and the dress in
“Starfish” exactly reproduces the sketch for Goldfish’s dress from the ballet
“Underwater kingdom” by Lev Annensky. Chiparus could have been influenced by
Russian ballets indirectly, through the performances of French music halls and
cabarets which bore traces of the strong impact of Russian ballet. Quite often,
Chiparus used the photos of Russian and French dancers, vedettes and models
from fashion magazines of his time.
After the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922, the art of ancient
Egypt and the East came to French fashion and is also reflected in the creative
activity of Chiparus. Several sculptures by Dimitri Chiparus and Claire Colinet
represent queen Cleopatra and Egyptian dancers. The sculptures of Chiparus
reflect his time and 1920-1930s sentiment of “folle”. Coming from the oldest
French tradition of high-quality and extra-artistic decorative arts, the
sculptures of Dimitri Chiparus combine elegance and luxury, embodying the
spirit of the Art Deco epoch.
Collector interest in the
work of Chiparus appeared in the 1970s and has flourished since the 1990s.
Any help identifying a value on these pieces would be greatly appreciated.
