Pair of Fish Bookends Bronze Metal Signed Franjou Art Deco 1930s

  

Old pair of bookends, made of copper metal? With a bronze and gold patina, on a pink veined white marble base, shaped like aquatic grotesques or sea dragons, signed Franjou, Art Deco, 1930s.

Marked in relief on each fish, at the base of the head, on the right side: "FRANJOU". First fish: height 15.5 cm; length 12.1 cm; width 8.1 cm; weight 910 g.

Second fish: height 15.6 cm; length 12.1 cm; width 8.1 cm; weight 932 g. Very good condition for objects nearly a century old. However, the first of the two fish has a crack on the left side of its head (the side opposite the signature) and therefore a point of fragility, but nothing is loose. Under the base of the second fish, an old repair on the fixing screw of the figurine should be noted.

The whimsical animal, resembling a dolphin with fin-like scrolls, is a decorative motif inspired by Roman antiquity, prevalent during the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries and into the baroque art of the 18th century, particularly in architecture. It is regularly found sculpted in the ornamentation of fountains. Here, the subject is revisited by the artist Franjou, possibly G. Franjou, a French sculptor known for his animal figures in the first half of the 20th century, presented with a sleek and stylized design characteristic of Art Deco.

Geometry and symmetry are emphasized. This 1930s aesthetic perfectly aligns with the original purpose of these objects aimed at organizing a book shelf. With these items, make your library a true place of culture and escape; they will allow you to travel through space, with their reference to the marine world, and to leap back in time, with their retro spirit of the interwar period and the ancestral origins of the imaginary bestiary represented!