Bergmann Bronze Pheasant

A majestic turn of the century cold painted bronze pheasant cast by Bergmann of Austria. A rendition of a male Black Pheasant variety. The Bergmann foundry produced some of the finest cold painted bronzes towards the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. Stamped with the Bergman foundry maker's mark and the word, 'Geschützt', meaning protected or patented and indicating that the design, has been legally registered by the manufacturer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Dimension: 25 cm/9⅞ inches (height) x 43cm/17 inches (length) x 9cm/3½ inches (width).

The Bergmann foundry was established in Vienna by Franz Xaver Bergmann and produced various works in bronze from 1860 onwards, including whimsical, humorous objets d'art and figurines but they have become particularly well known for their cold-painted bronze birds and animals. At the turn of the 19th century there were about fifty workshops producing Vienna bronzes.

The foundry workshops employed a team of sculptors to create the original models that the castings were taken from. 'Cold-painted' refers to the decoration of the bronzes. Carried out in several layers with so-called dust paint; the know-how for the mix of this kind of paint has been lost to history. The color was not fired, hence 'cold painted'. The painting was mainly done by women working at home, in a typical cottage industry set-up.

The foundry was forced to shut down in 1930 due to the economic devastation of the Great Depression. Following its closure and Franz Xaver Bergmann's death in 1936, the workshops remained closed through the turbulent years surrounding World War II. Robert Bergmann re-opened his father's foundry after the war and produced works until his death in 1954.