Chryselephantine of a Girl with Hoop, Signed Bertrand, French Work, circa 1900

This enchanting chryselephantine figurine depicts a young girl at play, her bronze-clad body caught in a moment of animated movement as she guides her hoop. The combination of dark, richly patinated bronze for the dress and hoop with the warm ivory of the face and hands is characteristic of the chryselephantine technique — from the Greek words for gold and ivory — which enjoyed its greatest popularity in French and Belgian decorative sculpture from roughly 1880 to 1920. The contrast of materials gives the figure a liveliness and warmth that purely metallic figures cannot achieve.

The sculpture bears the signature of Bertrand, a French sculptor active around the turn of the 20th century, whose figures of children and young women in lively outdoor pursuits were well received by the bourgeois clientele that favoured this genre of intimate, charming sculpture. The subject of the girl with a hoop was a perennial favourite in the Belle Époque decorative arts, evoking the carefree pleasures of childhood and the idyllic world of the prosperous French family. Bertrand renders the figure with confident naturalism — the posture alert and credible, the features of the ivory face delicately carved with a gentle expression.

The figure is mounted on a rectangular onyx base, the banded green-and-cream stone providing an elegant, luxurious footing that was the preferred choice for quality bronzes and chryselephantines of the period. The ivory head has been professionally restored, and the piece is presented in stable, displayable condition overall.

A delightful example of French Belle Époque chryselephantine sculpture, accessible in scale and deeply appealing in subject. Dimensions: W. 8 × D. 8 × H. 15.5 cm.