Antique Bronze between £0 and £0
Cast copper-alloy objects of every scale and use, from thimbles and incense burners to life-size fountain figures, made for display, ritual, trade and the household.
What You're Looking At
The heading covers cast metalware of every size, but the category settles into three big blocks. Japanese and Chinese decorative work makes up roughly a quarter of listings on Sellingantiques: vases, censers, okimono, jardinieres. Then European figural and animalier sculpture, the largest Western group. Then utilitarian and commemorative casting, from mortars and measures to bells and plaques.
The piece you're most likely to meet is a nineteenth-century figure or vessel, Asian or French. Japanese titles number 450 and Meiji alone accounts for 238; French runs to 296, Chinese to 168. Figures, busts and statues sit on one side, vases, censers, urns and planters on the other. Pairs are a defining habit, offered in 416 titles, and 345 are flagged large.
Two smaller streams recur often enough to name. Grand Tour souvenirs, about one listing in twelve, are reductions after antique sculpture and monuments bought by travellers to Italy: Warwick and Albani vases, Marly Horses, the Dying Gaul, temple models. Austrian cold-painted work, about one in sixteen, brings birds, dogs, inkwells and desk pieces finished in unfired colour.
Dating is loose at the top level. The dated field runs 1700 to 1960, but the largest single bucket is a century-wide "19th Century" tag, with Victorian and Regency adding their own imprecision. Decade tags cluster on the 1870s to the 1930s. A handful of much older things sit in a Before 1700 bucket, including a 1589 pestle and mortar and a twelfth-century Persian inlaid ewer.
Top And Bottom
A name does most of the lifting. Signed appears in 72 titles, and the highest-priced samples carry Japanese signatures, while the lowest name nobody at all. Alongside that sits "after", in 78 titles, meaning a cast taken from another sculptor's original rather than a hand-modelled piece. Both are worth more than an anonymous cast, in different ways.
Scale and surface come next. Dealers state weights and heights when they flatter, and the figures in the archive run up to 20kg and past four feet. Elaboration pushes the same direction: gilding appears in 127 titles, mixed-metal inlay in 45, with champlevé, cloisonné, shakudo and silver inlay through the upper range. Plain patinated studies sit lower.
Completeness matters more here than in most metalware, because so much was made in twos: pairs of vases, lions, urns, tazzas and chenets, and sets of official measures. And the material itself is a divider. Spelter and "bronzed" pieces are sold under the same heading, bronzed appearing in 43 titles, and they sit at the bottom of the range. The very top is not European at all, but a late Ming gilt-splashed censer, then large signed Meiji work.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for bronze between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Bronze has been listed on Sellingantiques since 2008, and over 1,900 pieces have passed through since.
Seiya·Franz Bergman·Barbedienne·Pierre Jules Mene
The Antique Bronze between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Cold painted
- Unfired paint applied over a finished bronze surface, the Austrian and Vienna speciality. It turns up in 168 titles, usually on birds, dogs and small desk pieces.
- Grand Tour
- Souvenir reductions after antique sculpture and monuments, bought by travellers to Italy. Named in 219 titles, and the source of most of the classical vases and horses in the category.
- Bronzed / spelter
- A bronze-coloured finish, or zinc alloy standing in for bronze. Sold within the same heading, and "bronzed" appears in 43 titles.
- Gilt / ormolu
- Gold-finished bronze. Gilt runs through 127 titles, ormolu chiefly on mounts, urns and chenets.
- Okimono
- A Japanese free-standing display figure, often an animal, made for the table or shelf rather than for use.
- Koro / censer
- A lidded incense burner. Censer appears in 69 titles; koro is the term used on the Japanese examples.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does after mean in a bronze title?
It means the cast was taken from, or modelled on, another artist's original. The word appears in 78 titles on Sellingantiques.
It sits alongside "reduction", a scaled-down foundry copy of a larger sculpture. Both are common through the European figural and Grand Tour listings.
Why are so many bronzes sold in pairs?
Because so much of the category was made in twos. Pairs are offered in 416 titles, one in six, from salts and bookends up to monumental vases.
Marly Horses, temple lions, urns, tazzas and chenets all recur as pairs. Complete pairs and sets sit toward the upper part of the range.
Is Meiji bronze common in this category?
Very. Japanese appears in 450 titles and Meiji alone in 238, making Japanese and Chinese work roughly a quarter of everything listed.
The forms are vases, censers and koro, okimono, jardinieres and brush pots. Large signed Meiji vases and okimono are among the highest figures in the archive.
What is cold-painted bronze?
Bronze finished with unfired paint rather than patination or gilding, the Austrian and Vienna speciality. Cold painted appears in 168 titles, Austrian in 105.
The subjects are small: birds, dogs, dishes, inkwells and desk tidies. It accounts for about one listing in sixteen.
How reliable is a 19th Century date tag?
Treat it as a century-wide label. It's the largest single bucket in the archive at 858 listings, with Victorian and Regency adding further imprecision.
Decade tags are tighter and cluster on the 1870s through the 1930s. Titles say much the same, with c1880, c1890, "late 19th" and "art deco" all recurring.
Are there bronzes older than the 18th century?
A handful. The dated field starts at 1700, and anything earlier goes into a Before 1700 bucket.
The samples there include a pestle and mortar dated 1589, a fifteenth-century Javanese copper-alloy Buddha, a twelfth-century Persian inlaid ewer and an early Byzantine Christ figure.