Rembrandt Bugatti Bronze Bird

Appraised on: July 12, 2003

Appraised in: Savannah, Georgia

Appraised by: Eric Silver

Category: Metalwork & Sculpture

Episode Info: Wild Things (#916)
Savannah, Hour 3 (#812)

Originally Aired: April 12, 2004

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (2:57)

GUEST: Well, about 55 years ago, a neighbor of my mother's-- a Mrs. Morgan-- gave that to her, plus there was a piece similar to it, which was a jaguar, which is a little bit larger. And we almost brought that along with us, but we didn't; we brought this one because it was smaller, which my mother had, and then it passed over to my wife and myself.

APPRAISER: Well, the piece you brought in is a spectacular piece of sculpture. It was done by an artist named Rembrandt Bugatti, and he came from a very famous family of artists. His uncle was a famous Italian Impressionist painter named Seguantini. His father was Carlo Bugatti, who was a painter, and also designed furniture. He made this fantastic, sort of, Middle Eastern style furniture that was covered in parchment and copper and all kinds of wonderful jewels. He had a brother, Ettore Bugatti, which is the Italian car designer--

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: --one of the greatest car designers ever.

GUEST: Expensive, too.

APPRAISER: And expensive-- I think it's probably one of the most expensive antique cars is a Bugatti. Rembrandt Bugatti-- he was very successful right from the start. He started very young. He signed a contract when he was only 20 years old to produce bronzes. And he loved animals, he only did animals. And they're done in this sort of very Impressionist style, and they're wonderful because they really capture the... the spirit of the animal himself. You know, you get a real feeling for the animal and how it behaves and the character. And you have this wonderful bird that's sort of preening its feathers. And it's done in what's called the "lost wax" technique, which yielded a very fine casting. And I'd like to just turn it around, just to show how beautifully signed this is. It's signed with his name-- Rembrandt Bugatti. And it also has a foundry seal right here. This was the Hébrard Foundry, and this was the leading foundry in France at the time. It was noted for doing great artistic work. He died when he was only 30 years old-- he actually committed suicide in 1916-- so his work is very rare and it's very, very desirable. This piece at auction, would probably bring between $20,000 and $30,000. Now, you said you had a panther?

GUEST: Yeah, or a jaguar, one or the other.

APPRAISER: A jaguar? Without seeing it, if it's like this, in good quality, it's probably worth over $100,000.

GUEST: Oh, my. That's amazing. That is amazing.

APPRAISER: Nice gift to your mother, huh?

GUEST: It really was, really was. Do you know what the first thing I'm going to do when I go home is reinsure our contents of our house.

APPRAISER: You certainly should.

GUEST: God Almighty. My Lord. That's amazing.

APPRAISER: It is, it is. Thanks for coming in.

GUEST: Well, I'm glad to have come in. I'm very much glad to come in.