Signed Early 20th c. Bronze Dog Bookends by PAUL HERZEL c.1920

ABOUT

A pair of original bronze clad dog bookends with original felt on the bottom. Designed and stamped Paul Herzel. Both bookends are in good condition and have retained their finish and have the appropriate patina consistent with age and use. 

• CREATOR Paul Herzel, Germany, 1876-1956. 
• DATE OF MANUFACTURE c.1920-1930.
  
• MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES Bronze Clad, Felt. 
  
• CONDITION Good. Wear consistent with age and use.
• DIMENSIONS H 8.75 in. W 7 in. D 2.75 in.

HISTORY

Born in Silesia, Germany, he was brought to St. Louis by his family at the age of 7. He began to draw on the margins of his schoolbooks and to model in clay that he found on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River near his home. After the death of his father, Mr. Herzel went to work at the age of 14. He was a machinist with the American Brake Company until he was 28. When he was 22, Mr. Herzel began to study painting at the St. Louis Art School. Later he helped to organize the Brush and Pencil Club of St. Louis and studied art there.

Fascinated with the herd of elk at the Forest Park Zoo in St. Louis, he made many sketches, paintings and models. He became expert in catching the action of wild animals, and made some statuettes. Mr. Herzel later went to Eu- rope, visited museums and copied Velasquez' paintings in Madrid. He then came to New York, and studied sculpture at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design. He frequented the Central Park Zoo, painting, sketching and modeling lions, other big cats and antelope. Later he spent many of his leisure hours at the Bronx Zoo amid a variety of animal models.

Two of his paintings, “Blesbok” and “White- Tailed Gnu,” were acquired by the New York Zoological Society. In 1915 Mr. Herzel's “The Struggle,” a statue of a boa constrictor strangling a tiger, won the Barnett Prize of the National Academy of Design and also a prize given by Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney. The Pompeian Bronze Company reproduced some of his statuettes as ash trays and book-ends. Among his outstanding work were cowboy and Indian figures. including “Bucking Horse;” “The Pirate,” “Lion and Zebra,” “The Riveter,” which was acquired by the Moscow Museum of Modern Western Arts, and “The Yank,” a weary doughboy of World War I. 

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