What metal are most of these made from?

Bronze, by a wide margin. It accounts for 237 of the 352 titles, and it's more dominant still in current stock. Everything else is a minority. Spelter is named in twenty-five titles, and cast iron, lead, brass, copper, aluminium and silver-plated white metal each appear in single figures.

How old are antique metal sculptures usually?

The dealers' own dating runs from 1800 to 1960, with 192 listings carrying a clean year. Nearly a third of the category is dated only to a century, most often as '19th Century'. Where decades are given, the 1930s come first, then the 1900s and the 1920s. A few sampled Javanese and Jain figures are dated to the 12th to 16th centuries, sitting well outside the main span.

Which subjects come up most often?

Animals. Dogs are the single commonest named subject, ahead of horses and lions. After that come nudes and classical figures, busts, and groups. Plaques and reliefs appear as flat cast panels rather than figures in the round, and car mascots are a recurring sub-type. About one title in eleven is a pair.

Does spelter mean a lesser piece?

Spelter is a cheaper zinc alloy, usually bronzed or painted to read as bronze. The twenty-five titles that name it cluster in the lower and middle of the range. It's tied closely to the Art Deco and Art Nouveau seam, often with onyx or alabaster bases.

What is a Grand Tour bronze?

A souvenir reduction after a famous antique statue or vase, made for travellers. Twenty-five titles fall into this seam. The same handful of originals comes round repeatedly: the Warwick Vase, the Dying Gaul, Spinario, the Marly Horses and the Venus de Milo.

How many are listed on Sellingantiques each year?

Around thirty-nine a year, and 129 separate dealers have handled them. That spread matters. It's a category almost any general dealer touches rather than the preserve of sculpture specialists, which is why the descriptions and the dating vary so much from listing to listing.

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Antique Metal Sculptures

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Free-standing cast metal figures and studies made for tables, desks and mantelpieces, mostly bronze animals, nudes and classical subjects, many of them on stone bases.