413 - Gerhard Schliepstein, ‘Duck Dance’, bronze / bone, c. 1920

Gerhard Schliepstein, ‘Duck Dance’, bronze / bone, c. 1920 Gerhard Schliepstein, 1886 Braunschweig - 1963 Berlin, German Art Deco sculptor and designer, as well as a porcelain modeller; shown here: A slender young man, wearing a bowler hat, suit and waistcoat, balancing a small duck on his bottom with his back arched; gold-brown patinated bronze & bone, partially painted; some paint wear on the hat; on a marble plinth, Height: 15 cm, signed on the plinth. About the artist: Gerhard Schliepstein completed a four-year apprenticeship in sculpture with the Braunschweig court sculptor Wilhelm Bayer, and from 1907 studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. He then worked initially as a freelance artist and, from 1911, began designing naturalistic porcelain figurines, which were produced at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin (KPM). In addition to KPM, he subsequently worked for the Schwarzburg Workshops for Porcelain Art in Unterweißbach, the Heubach Brothers’ porcelain factories in Lichte, and the Schierholz Manufactory in Plaue. Schliepstein worked mainly in porcelain and, less frequently, in bronze and alabaster. His works are now held in major museums, including the Bröhan Museum in Berlin and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney.