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Antique Questions Forum / Antoni Firenze copper pennyfarthing sculpture

« on: July 07, 2014, 02:33:12 pm »

Hello all!  First, let me just say I am not looking to sell this or make any kind of money from it.  I am just curious if this item is valuable, or a "collectible".  When we bought it at a garage sale, we thought it was a worthless junk lawn ornament that had rusted away.  But then I saw the copper tag on it that said "Antoni Firenze, Italy" - worthless pieces of junk do not usually have the artist's name stamped on them.  Also, I googled "antoni firenze" and came up with a bunch of hits on ebay for Firenze sculptures selling for around $200-$400.

The very perplexing thing is that, at first glance, this looks like someone painted it many years ago and then left the paint to chip off and rust.  But upon closer inspection, there appears to be some kind of clear coat on TOP of the chipped paint and rust, so we're not sure if it was the artist's intention, or a haphazard repair by its previous owner.  Also if the sculpture really IS copper, copper doesn't rust brown, it rusts green. 

Attached are 4 pictures; two of the whole sculpture from different angles, and two of the artist's copper "signature" tag from front and back (the back appears to be blank, there is no production number).

Thanks for any info you might have!  Again, not looking to make any money off this, and I probably wouldn't know how even if it WAS valuable.  Just curious

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Antique Questions Forum / Antoni Firenze copper pennyfarthing sculpture

« on: July 07, 2014, 02:28:45 pm »

edit:  Don't know if I'm double posting here, I think my first attempt timed out trying to use your forum's image uploader, so I am trying a different image host now:

Hello all!  First, let me just say I am not looking to sell this or make any kind of money from it.  I am just curious if this item is valuable, or a "collectible". 

This is a small metal Pennyfarthing sculpture we bought it at a garage sale, about 12 inches tall, and I THINK it is made of copper.  We thought it was a worthless junk lawn ornament that had rusted away.  But then I saw the copper tag on it that said "Antoni Firenze, Italy" - worthless pieces of junk do not usually have the artist's name stamped on them.  Also, I googled "antoni firenze" and came up with a bunch of hits on ebay for Firenze sculptures selling for around $200-$400.

The very perplexing thing is that, at first glance, this looks like someone painted it many years ago and then left the paint to chip off and rust.  But upon closer inspection, there appears to be some kind of clear coat on TOP of the chipped paint and rust, so we're not sure if it was the artist's intention, or a haphazard repair by its previous owner.  Also if the sculpture really IS copper, copper doesn't rust brown, it rusts green. 

Attached are 4 pictures; two of the whole sculpture from different angles, and two of the artist's copper "signature" tag from front and back (the back appears to be blank, there is no production number).






Thanks for any info you might have!  Again, not looking to make any money off this, and I probably wouldn't know how even if it WAS valuable.  Just curious