Jean Dunand

DeLorenzo Gallery, New York
Steven A. Greenberg, New York
Christie's New York, The Steven A. Greenberg Collection: Masterpieces of French Art Deco, December 13, 2012, lot 72
Sinai and Sons, Ltd., London
Private Collection, 2015
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Jean Dunand, exh. cat., DeLorenzo Gallery, New York, 1985, p. 129 (for the present lot illustrated)
Félix Marcilhac, Jean Dunand: His Life and Works, New York, 1991, p. 135, pl. 143 and p. 294, cat. no. 876 (for the present lot illustrated)
Jean Dunand, Jean Goulden, exh. cat., Kelly Gallery, New York, 2013, p. 31 (for the present lot illustrated)
Fantastique, exh. cat., Sinai and Sons, London, 2015, p. 13, fig. 9 (for the present lot illustrated)
Félix Marcilhac and Amélie Marcilhac, Jean Dunand, Paris, 2021, p. 330, no. 9 (for the present lot illustrated)

The present “Serpent” Vase is an extraordinary example of Jean Dunand’s artistry in bronze and a chef-d’œuvre of Art Deco metalsmithing. Born in Lancy, Switzerland in 1877, Dunand’s prolific career spanned a wide range of media including drawing, sculpture, furniture design, lacquer work and more, but perhaps none is more celebrated than his metalwork. After training at Geneva’s School of Industrial Arts, Dunand moved to Paris at the turn of the century where he worked with French sculptor Jean Dampt. Alongside this work, he maintained regular contact with a coppersmith in his home country named Danhauer, who introduced him to the craft of hammering metal. In 1905 Dunand exhibited his first group of dinanderie, vases deftly hammered from a single sheet of metal. The technique took its name from the Flemish town of Dinant, which was well known for its brassware production since the Middle Ages, and required a deep comprehension of each metal and its individual properties. 

Executed circa 1907, the “Serpent” vase belongs to this early period of Dunand’s career in which the designer made a name for himself with his dinanderie and mastered the processes of metalworking. Composed of patinated bronze, the vase features a hammered martelé ground and irregular rim, underscoring the handmade nature of the work and evoking the texture and delicacy of a fired ceramic. The vase is further decorated with a serpent which sinuously wraps itself around the shoulder and neck of the vase. The intense naturalism achieved by Dunand demonstrates how his initial training in sculpture translated into his designs. This is likely one of the first serpent models Dunand created; the serpent would become a frequent motif in his work, appearing again on other lacquered vases as well as standalone sculptures. Another vase by Dunand exhibited in 1913 and later owned by Madame Hélène Rochas is the only other known example in which the snake is positioned with its mouth open and tongue extended as it is on the present lot. A later lacquered vase designed in 1925 and once belonging to Jeanne-Marie Lanvin features a bronze snake with its mouth closed but similarly coiled around its curves, indicating that the present example may have been a study or early experimentation with the form. Beyond this history in the scope of Dunand's oeuvre, the vase is further distinguished by its provenance, hailing from the Art Deco collection of entrepreneur Steven A. Greenberg.