What is a Grand Tour lion?

A Grand Tour lion is a small bronze replica of a famous classical sculpture, such as the Medici or Canova lions in Italy. Travellers purchased these portable sculptures during European journeys in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as educational and aesthetic mementoes.

What is cold-painted bronze?

Cold-painted bronze refers to metal sculptures painted with natural oil or enamel paints that are not subjected to high-temperature kiln firing. This technique was famously utilised by Viennese workshops in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to create brightly coloured animal figures.

Where were animalier bronzes made?

Animalier bronzes were predominantly cast in French foundries during the nineteenth century by specialist metalworkers and artists. These workshops produced everything from small desk ornaments to large studies of prowling or roaring predators.