Bronze Figure

Bronze is one of the most ancient and widespread material art works, for more than 4000 years. In the 10th and 11th centuries bronze work continued in countries such as China, Egypt, India, France, Germany, Greece and Italy.

Its resistance to rust combined with its ability to take on artistic and beautiful colouring makes bronze a valuable material to the artist. Over the years bronze has been used for statues, figures, sculpture, coins and decorative articles and much more. In China, bronze was a prominent metal in their art and figures. Most Chinese bronze was produced by the lost-wax method and inlay work was customary.

Today, cast bronze is unchallenged in the fine arts as a medium especially for freestanding figures. The durability and lightness of bronze handicraft make it preferable to stone or wood in many types of work. Bronze art offer a freedom of conception, which is impossible in stone.

Make any occasion special with a gift item, of course, with a bronze figure. Also, an unbeaten promotional give away for the corporate sector to improve good business relationship.

Chinese and Japanese bronzes of great age and great size have been made for many hundreds of years. In addition to figures there are some fifteenth-century bells at Pekin weighing about fifty-five tons each and standing fourteen feet high. Chinese bronze altar-vessels of the Shang-Yin (1766-1122 B.C.) and Chou dynasties (1122-249 B.C.) are particularly fine and rare. Most have been buried for many centuries, and contact with earth has resulted in corrosion of the surface. Inevitably, these bronzes have been copied at later dates, but the true patina (ageing of the surface) presents a very difficult problem to the faker and it is one that is seldom solved with success.

Mention must be made of the very many fine bronze figures made in India and Siam (Thailand) in the sixteenth century A.D. and earlier. Some of the latter are gilt, and most are remarkably beautiful. The finer examples remain in the East or are in Western museums, but a few appear on the market from time to time. Reasonably good examples can sometimes be bought quite cheaply.

In West Africa, the skilful bronze and brass workers of the kingdom of Benin perhaps learned their craft from the Portuguese, with whom they had traded from the late fifteenth century. Their work is highly individual and much is very beautiful, but it is scarce and good specimens are obtainable only rarely. Examples were brought to Europe by a British punitive expedition, which captured Benin City in 1897, and there are fine collections from this source at the British Museum, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset, the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, and in the possession of the Government of Nigeria.

Not only the Europeans but the Asian nations like Japan, China, India and Thailand also made good quality of bronze figures and articles. Some of them can still be found in some famous museums of the world. These countries usually made bronze idols, alter-vessels, and other figures and articles for both domestic use and for export.

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