Massive Life Size Panther With Glass Eyes, Mid-Century

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A commanding life-size black panther, hand-built over a sculpted armature and wrapped in what is believed to be leather, finished … Read more A commanding life-size black panther, hand-built over a sculpted armature and wrapped in what is believed to be leather, finished in deep black with a soft natural sheen. The cat is captured mid-stride with head lowered and jaws open, fitted with amber glass eyes, applied fangs, and fine filament whiskers. Seams and hand-worked creasing across the shoulders and flanks give the surface a convincing musculature that reads beautifully from across a room. Unsigned, as most examples of this type are. A genuine showstopper for an entry, library, or maximalist living room.

Leather-wrapped animal sculpture came into vogue in the mid-twentieth century, when Dimitri Omersa began producing hand-stitched hide animals for Liberty of London and later for Abercrombie & Fitch, whose sporting-goods emporiums turned them into a fixture of the well-appointed den. The black panther itself had been a decorative obsession since the Art Deco years, when sculptors like Rembrandt Bugatti and the ceramicists who followed them made the prowling feline shorthand for glamour and menace. Examples at this scale are considerably harder to find than the tabletop cats and footstool-sized animals that turn up regularly. See less