Crowing Cockerel Watch Stand, Art Nouveau, c.1900
A figural pocket-watch stand from the Art Nouveau period, modelled as a cockerel crowing on an openwork base, made around 1900 to 1910.
The bird stands with its head thrown back and beak open, the comb and wattle crisply modelled, on a base of flowing whiplash lines in the Jugendstil manner that ran through French and German decorative metalwork at the turn of the century. Its long tail sweeps down in a single curve to meet the ground. At the front of the base a curved cradle takes a pocket watch and holds it upright, face out, so a watch that would otherwise sit in a pocket or a drawer can be set on a desk or a bedside table and read like a small clock. The cockerel, the coq, was a favourite subject of the period, and among these stands it is one of the more desirable.
It is cast in a heavy silvered metal. The plating has worn to a warm tone on the high points, the head, the crest of the tail and the rim of the base, over an even and honest patina. There is no maker's mark, as was usual for these pieces, and no reliable way to tie it to a single workshop.
The stand measures 15cm tall on an 11cm base. It is complete, the casting sharp throughout, with no visible losses, cracks or repairs. Pieces like this were made as everyday desk objects and comparatively few come through whole and clean. No box or papers.
