antique bust paris france help please :) x

[maggiefound]

hey all just a question i picked this bust up from a house clearance for 310. its really really heavy i struggle to lift it. on the backj there is some writing but cant make out all what it says i know it says
Bo..... then some other letters
Paris
1921
407
FRANCE
looks handwritten ...
there are a couple of chips on it and under neath looks like a white colour. is this old or not? anyone got any info on it? heres the link for photo bucket x x x
<a href="http://s964.photobucket.com/user/maggiemilner13/media/008_zpsc54def20.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae129/maggiemilner13/008_zpsc54def20.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 008_zpsc54def20.jpg"/>[/url]

[maggiefound]

back x

[maggiefound]

another pic

[maggiefound]

sorry paid £10 not 310 haha x

[Ipcress]

I've seen this before, or something incredibly similar, and remember thinking it was plaster.

Also seemed to have been artificially " weathered " as if to appear old. Almost an excavated look but something not quite right.

It could be the Bo.. is Borrel, for Alfred Borrel, a French sculptor who died in 1927 but better known for coin and numismatic designs. Possibly this is an " after " example, a copy of one of his busts or made in his manner. It could of course be used to help sell the bust !


Anyway, worth more than you paid but not much more even if a period piece. Cleaned up, i could see someone paying three times as much on a stall.

Keys Auctions sold something similar in 2006. Good auction house.

[KC]

Can you please post the dimensions?  Weight?

It sounds as if it is plaster when you indicate that there is white showing where there are chips!  Believe it is a reproduction bust of an original.  Plaster busts were very popular in the early to mid 1900's.  (Nowdays they are generally made in resin.)

Thanks for sharing your treasure with us!