Antique French metal VaseLa Libellule by Virgile Morey, Dragonfly Woman on Marble — France, circa 1900

DETAILS:
Size: Height 33 cm (13 in) · Width 19 cm (7.5 in)
Material: patinated spelter; red marble base
Style/Period: French Art Nouveau, circa 1900 — by Virgile Morey
Shipping: professionally packed, fully insured, worldwide
Condition: good; spelter sound throughout; dragonfly figure has slight movement at joint as noted; one corner of marble base chipped as photographed
Returns: accepted within 30 days

The dragonfly woman was one of Art Nouveau's most characteristic inventions — a figure that dissolved the boundary between human and insect, between the natural world and the decorative object. Loïe Fuller had made the winged dancer famous on the Paris stage in the 1890s, and the sculptors who followed her example understood that the dragonfly's iridescent wings, its hovering stillness before sudden movement, and its ancient association with transformation made it one of the period's perfect subjects. Applied to a vase — the figure clinging to the vessel as though it had alighted there — the motif turned a functional object into a small piece of theatre.

This vase is French, circa 1900, by Virgile Morey, cast in spelter on a red marble base. The vessel is a twisted, spirally fluted ewer form — the body ribbed in a continuous helical twist from foot to shoulder, the lip curling outward in the organic manner of the Art Nouveau bronze at its most confident. Clinging to the shoulder and rising above the rim, a female figure with dragonfly wings spreads her arms wide, her body arched backward, the wings cast with their characteristic paired form — upper and lower, each with the delicate venation that separates a sculptor who studied the living insect from one who imagined it. The surface of the spelter carries a warm, deep brown patina throughout, the kind that settles over decades of indoor life.

The spelter is sound and the figure is present; the dragonfly figure has a slight movement at its joint — noted and photographed — and one corner of the marble base carries a small chip, as declared. Both are priced accordingly. It stands well on a desk or a library shelf, and it will be recognised immediately by anyone who knows the period.

It arrives professionally packed and fully insured. Returns are accepted within 30 days.

Condition

Read our condition standard. Please ask if you need additional photographs or measurements.

A decorative style is not a guarantee of a particular maker or date. See the individual listing for the stated attribution and period.

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Delivery information

Notify us within 30 days of delivery if you wish to return a piece. No reason is required. Returns are free within the Netherlands and Belgium; from elsewhere you pay return shipping for a change-of-mind return.

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