Posted 12 years ago
ho2cultcha
(5051 items)
I bought this on Ebay a few years ago and really love it. I've seen a few of these bird figurines, but never one i liked as much as this. It appears to be handmade - there are some spots which are extremely thin and the piece is very finely crafted. there's no signature of any sort on it. any info would be deeply appreciated.
Nice piece. First thing that came to mind was Brad Keeler. Might be worth checking to see if you can find a marked example.
thank you. i hadn't seen his work before. i see the resemblance in the detail. the finish is different - more satiny, but perhaps he used different finishes too.
I would be surprised if it's handmade... the painting looks like it was done with an airbrush, which indicates that it was created by a potter or pottery company. But that's just my amateur opinion.
i think that i misspoke. it does look like it was partially made in a mold, but there are obvious pieces which have been applied by hand. the green leaf upon which it sits on the stump is very, very thin and i believe it was applied by hand. the piece is made differently from other Brad Keeler pieces i've seen in that the base is solid underneath. The stump is hollow w/ the hole at the top like a vase and there is what appears to be an air-hole under a wing. I'll attach a couple more pics now.
thank you czechman. i'd love to know more about it. i've seen some very poorly made czech bird vases, but never such a nice one as this one. would love to see more!
i was looking through hundreds of brad keeler pieces last night and i'm leaning strongly towards him. i didn't see another one w/ this particular bird, but the style and shape of the trunk is identical to some of his. also, the intaglio surface of the feathers is identical to some of his and even the unusual leaf flip underneath him is similar to some of his other pieces. i'm fairly certain now that this is an unmarked brad keeler piece. perhaps there are some czech pieces out there that are similar too, but i couldn't find any which were even remotely similar in style and quality. i'd love to hear from a brad keeler expert/ collector to hear what they think. ??
This is definitely an early piece by William Maddux of Maddux of California. He did hand-detailing of these early ones and they are a lot more valuable than his later straight production pieces.