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MIAMI, Fla.—VALERIO Antiques of Coral Gables, Fla., is pleased to showcase European sculptures from some of the greatest avant-garde artists of the Art Deco period. From Atelier Hagenauer Wien and Demetre Chiparus to Maurice Guiraud-Rivière and Frederic Focht, these ingénues created pieces out of admiration for the male and female form while others specialized in wooden and metal busts. Created in a variety of bronze or mixed-media materials, these sculptures were largely inspired by society and celebrated entertainment figures of that time. Today, those same pieces are now cherished alongside the Charles Schneider’s exclusive gallery at VALERIO Antiques. 
 
Among the sculptures available at VALERIO Antiques are:

· Maurice Guiraud-Rivière’s Three Men Pulling on a Rope was inspired by a Belgian sculptor’s heroic depictions of manual laborers during the late 1800s. This bronze sculpture portrays a group of straining nude figures pulling an imaginably heavy object though it’s not represented in the sculpture. The figures’ muscles are sculpted and pronounced in this exquisite masterpiece created in France during the 1920s. 

· Frederic Focht’s L’Aviation or The Aviator is a perfect portrayal of a man reaching for the heavens. Created in 1930 in France, the patinated bronze sculpture on a black marble base shows a man riding a shooting star with arms wide open and wings in flight above silver waves.

· Atelier Hagenauer Wien’s Bust with One Ear is a nickel-platted metal face and a Woman’s Face is hand-carved on wood with a metal cape and bracelet.  The busts were created by the world-renowned Austrian sculptor in the 1930s. 

· Demetre Chiparus’s The Egyptian Dancer is a gilded bronze sculpture while The Vedette Dancer is a patinated bronze sculpture, both on a marble base. The Romanian artist was known for his creative bronze and ivory pieces inspired by Russian ballet dancers, ancient Egyptian art and French theatre.
 
VALERIO Antiques has seen a remarkable interest in these sculptures lately, both from a decorative, as well as an investment standpoint. Most recently VALERIO Antiques sold Maurice Guiraud-Rivière’s La Comète or The Comet, a piece made during the years of 1925-1930 in Paris, France. The Comet is considered one of Maurice’s greatest works.  The patinated and silvered bronze sculpture on a black marble base is of a young woman shooting through a sky of stylized clouds with her long tresses imitating a comet’s tail. 
 
After participating in The Miami Beach Antique Show and the International Fine Art Fair, VALERIO has seen an increase in interest from consumers looking for safe and secure investmen...

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Q  This dry sink has a lid and dovetails on the drawer that are handmade. How old is it, and what is it worth?
— F.Z.M., Newmanstown, Pa.

A  Your dry sink was made in the second half of the 19th century. It could sell in a shop for around $350 to $375.

Q  These bottles were given to me by my uncle, who said they were made to promote a presidential campaign of Tippecanoe. They have a raised, wood-grain pattern and a canoe along with the words Tippecanoe and H. H. Warner Co. On the bottom is “Rochester, NY #4.” Can you give me any information and value?
— K.B., New Windsor, Md.

A  Your bitters bottle used the slogan for the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe , and the 10th president of the United States , John Tyler, 1841-1845. The bottle was made during that period. One such bottle recently fetched $127 on eBay.


Q  I have inherited this wicker chair. It has been in the family since I was a baby. It has a paper label reading “Karpen guaranteed furniture. Original and guaranteed Ford-Johnson fiber rush furniture.” How old is it and what is the resale value?
— M., Ohio

A  Your fiber-rush rocker with the leather back was made around the 1920s or ’30s. S. Karpen & Bros. was founded in Chicago in 1880. From your photo, your chair has condition issues with the worn finish. In good condition, it could be priced at several hundred dollars. As is, it is worth $25 at a garage sale.

Send your questions via e-mail to AskAT@fwmedia.com or to Antique Trader Q&A, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. Photo guidelines: Save as jpeg or tiff, 200 dpi or higher, and original image at least 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep.

Anne Gilbert is a nationally syndicated columnist, author of eight antiques and collectibles books, and is well known for her lectures to business and prof...

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Owning an antique, whether it be a piece of jewelry, a vintage automobile or a dining table from the early 19th century, is a rewarding and fulfilling proposition. Pride of ownership is apparent in most people lucky enough to possess such treasures and that pride is displayed as often as the piece.

Owning a piece of the past, however, is often an expensive proposition — even a luxury in some cases, and most of us cannot afford to own something of significant size or extreme value if it does not contribute something concrete to our lives — something more substantial than the esoteric “feel good” things we often associate with the ownership of antiques. This is especially true of older and antique furniture .

Furniture in its barest form is functional sculpture. The key word here is “functional.” Furniture is made for a specific purpose to fit in our daily lives. It may be no more than a box to put our clothes in or frame upon which to rest our frame. But whatever it is, it was first built to fill a physical need. The beauty and art must come later.

This is especially true when the piece of furniture is not a Federal Pembroke table from New York, circa 1800, worth many thousands of dollars but is a second or third generation, machine-made, factory produced, American Empire drop leaf lamp table, circa 1900, worth only a few hundred dollars at best. You may really like the dark rich mahogany veneer on the lamp table and admire the solid feel of the thick brass lock in the top drawer but that broken base that makes the whole table tipsy is starting to bother you, not to mention putting the $500 lamp in jeopardy. And as nice as the lamp table is and as much as you admire the style and historic references incorporated into it (Duncan Phyfe, Honoré Lannuier, et. al.), you can acquire a brand new, very nice looking and most important of all, stable, new lamp table at the mall for about what you paid for the Empire piece — or less. In other words the Empire piece is no longer fulfilling its prime function, that of providing a stable platform and is being tolerated merely for its form.

Don’t do it. If you like the lamp table, for whatever reason, invest less than the cost of the new table in getting the old one properly repaired and get it done before you break both the table and the lamp beyond repair. If you don’t want to invest more money in the old piece then sell it, at a bargain, to someone who will. They aren’t making those old tables anymore and when they are broken beyond rep...

If you really enjoy researching, discovering and acquiring pieces of older and antique furniture, not to mention repairing, restoring and maintaining your functional links to the past, sooner or later you are going to get the urge to photograph them. You have all kinds of legitimate practical reasons to make a record of your treasures, such as for inventory and insurance purposes and the like, but perhaps you just want to brag a little – show off the newest acquisition to a distant cousin or impress a friend who is still stuck in the “brass and glass” phase.

When you take pictures of a piece of furniture, take pictures of the whole thing. You can’t possibly show all the details of an ornate chest of drawers in one photo. Shoot a whole series of shots like the glamour mags do. Show a full frontal shot, then a side angle, then an oblique, then a top shot, then go to details like hardware, carving, turnings, legs, feet and casters. Don’t forget to shoot the back and don’t forget to get shots with drawers and doors closed and open, and be sure to record the important joinery such as on drawers and stretchers on legs. If your camera has a macro function, it is particularly useful with the finer details.

Lighting can make or break your photo efforts. Since most of your shooting will be indoors you probably will be using the built in flash. In this case, do not take a picture straight on of a flat surface like a chest front. You will get a photo full of your own flash reflected back in your face. Employ a slight angle so the flash bounces away from you. Even when using a flash unit you must be very aware of external light sources. An uncovered window in your frame will cause your automatic camera to react to the “backlight” and the resulting photo will be too dark. Always work with natural light to your back if at all possible. Employ auxiliary lighting to your advantage. Even a simple drop light from your garage se...