Decorative Items

Very stylish Art Deco Bronze sculpture of a giraffe by Herbert Palliser, signed & dated 1921. Herbert Palliser was a very well know photographer & sculpture who was ranked alongside artists such as Epstein & Henry Moore. There are quite a few of his works in stone in central London on some prominent buildings. He was born in Northallerton in 1888, and studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and then at the Slade under J. Havard Thomas. There are three main works of architectural sculpture by him in central London, all in stone. In King William Street, in the City, is what is now a Russian bank, but was once the London Life Association, with three pairs of figures of seated figures, male and female (other sculptural work on this building is by C. L. Hartwell). On the north side of Southwark Bridge, close to Cannon Street, is Vintners Place, with woman representative of the spirit of the grape harvest, flanked by two goats and with doves above her head, and swans on the supporting blocks – a strange thing. Most ambitious, and unfortunately most difficult to see because it is high up in a road too narrow to get the proper distance, is the pediment group for a large building called Victoria House facing Southampton Row – it consists of three figures with machinery. Fortunately, the pediment on the other face of the building, towards Bloomsbury Square, can be seen at a comfortable distance – pictures of both works are on the Bloomsbury Square page. I believe his works are very rare & don't often come up in auction. There is a photograph of the this particular sculpture in the V & A archives. Please enlarge all the images to see all the fine detail.

Width – 14 inches, 35 cm
Depth – 13 inches, 33 cm
Height – 11 inches, 28 cm