Stylised Rooster in Gilt Wrought Iron on a Base, French Work, Circa 1950

This decorative rooster is built in bent and hammered wrought iron: the body and the tail are drawn by wide ribbons of metal forming confronted scrolls of great economy of means, while the head, treated as a solid disc, bears a notched cut comb and wattles in flat irons. Gold-leaf gilding, slightly nuanced, animates the whole, mounted on a rectangular iron base with a brown patina.

This stylisation of the rooster — the French emblem par excellence — in a single graphic gesture belongs to the finest work of French metalworkers of the 1950s, who reinterpreted the traditional bestiary in a modern and pared-down language, between fine craftsmanship and decorative sculpture.

Condition report: Good overall condition. Original gilding slightly patinated in places, natural oxidation of the base, with no apparent structural loss. A sculptural object full of character, to place on a console, a fireplace or a library.