GUEST: This was my grandmother's. Prior to her passing away, I always fell in love with it. And I had asked her what she was planning on doing with that. And she said, "Well, if you want it, it's yours."
APPRAISER: So you remember seeing it as a kid and visiting her?
GUEST: Yes, she was an animal lover, and had quite a number of pieces that were related to birds and dogs and things like that.
APPRAISER: Any idea where she got it?
GUEST: I have no idea. I'm sure that my grandfather, who passed away several years earlier than her, had gotten it for her. But where he acquired it, I have
no idea.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a wonderful piece. It's French, actually. It's by an artist named Maximilien Fiot. And it's very clearly signed right here in the front. He was an interesting artist. He was born in the 1880s and lived until the 1950s. And in France, there was this tradition called animalier artists, who were sculptors who specialized in depicting animals. The leading artist was Antoine-Louis Barye. And he started this whole interest in a very romantic idea of animals in the wild, nature, a lot of the animals eating each other, attacking. So that was the tradition. And this artist, Fiot, is interesting, because he's sort of the third generation. So his, his teacher studied with somebody who was the same period as Barye. So there's this interesting continuation.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This piece was probably done in the 19-teens or the 1920s. It's an example of that continuation of the animalier tradition well into the 20th century. It was cast by probably the most prominent foundry in Paris at the time, which is Susse Frères. And they're interesting, because they also started in the early part of the 19th century, in the 1830s. So they cast all that first generation of animalier sculptors. So we have this wonderful combination of an artist working in the animalier tradition, and a foundry that's continuing. The piece is beautifully modeled. I mean, he was a highly skilled artist. And I think what's wonderful about this, is the interaction between the horse and this little doggy. I mean, I think it's just so charming and really wonderful. And I think you get an idea of the personality of these two figures interacting.
GUEST: It's mesmerizing.
APPRAISER: In terms of the valuation on this, I mean, this is large for his work. Usually, we just see sort of single figures. A retail value on this would probably be in the $7,000 to $8,000 range.
GUEST: Very nice, very nice.
