Alfred Daguet Copper and Enamel Covered "Fish" Box
$22,500
This rare and stunning "Fish" box, by Alfred Daguet, is decorated with red enamel surrounding the fish swimming upon the top of the box. The fish's fins are fully open displaying this creature's innate beauty. This French Art Nouveau box is one in a series of square forms featuring profoundly integrated compositions portraying unusual predators, with their skins, spines and fins employed as unifying design elements. Created by a masterly combination of repoussé and chasing, the fish's high relief body rests upon a red ground. When the lid and front side are opened, a beautiful red leather interior is revealed.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: YF-19616
Artist: Alfred Daguet
Circa: 1900s
Dimensions: 4.25" height, 10.5" width, 10.5" depth
Materials: Repoussé patinated copper panels, Red enamel decoration, Red leather
Signed: "AD"
Literature: Similar boxes by Alfred Daguet are pictured in The Paris Salons 1895-1915, Vol. V: Objects d'Art and Metalware, by Alastair Duncan, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1999, pp. 202-203
World War I brought about a twelve year hiatus and transformation in Alfred Daguet's career. Like Jean Després, he was recruited as an aviation designer and illustrator, earning the title of "true apostle of aerial art," while his work continued to evolve. Intriguing descriptions exist of a series of steel and bronze desks exhibited at the Galiera in 1926, suggesting that Daguet embraced an Art Moderne aesthetic.