Large Modernist Cast Iron Fireback with Spread-Wing Owl, Signed Lucas, Foundry Stern, circa 1970

A monumental cast iron fireback by the French artist Lucas, produced by the Fonderie Stern and one of the most imposing examples of the post-war French artistic fireback tradition. The composition presents an owl with wings spread wide in a full heraldic display, the bird rendered with an expressive combination of abstracted geometry and naturalistic surface detail. Cast to generous scale—at 84 by 76 centimetres it commands the full width of a substantial hearth—the fireback asserts itself as a work of art as much as a functional fireplace fitting.

Lucas was among a group of sculptors and graphic artists who collaborated with the Fonderie Stern in the 1960s and 1970s to produce a distinguished series of artistic cast iron firebacks. The Fonderie Stern, a Paris foundry with a long history of artistic production, served as technical partner and guarantor of quality for the series, translating sculptors’ designs into iron with a precision that only an experienced foundry can achieve. Each piece was stamped with the Stern mark to authenticate its origin.

The owl holds a particular place in French decorative tradition: bird of wisdom and of night, it was a favourite of the Symbolists and the Art Déco movement alike, and its reappearance in the post-war artistic metalwork revival links this fireback to a long lineage of French owl iconography. Lucas’s treatment here is at once bold and finely observed: the spread-wing heraldic pose lends the composition formal dignity, while the relief work in the feathers betrays a craftsman’s pleasure in surface variety.

In good condition consistent with age and use; cast iron firebacks of this type typically acquire a warm, variegated patina through life near the fire. A major statement piece for a large and important fireplace.