Cast Brass Bookend Appraisal

Vintage Neoclassical Cast Brass Sea-Griffin Bookend

This is a single vintage decorative bookend featuring a mythological creature, specifically a winged sea-griffin or hippocampus, executed in a French Empire or Neoclassical Revival style. The piece is constructed from cast brass or bronze-toned metal with a weighted base. The creature is depicted with a lion-like head and torso, avian wings, and a scaled serpentine tail that terminates in elaborate, scrolling foliate volutes. The base is rectangular with clipped corners and tiered gadrooned molding. Structurally, the casting shows high-quality detailing in the feathers and scales. The color is a muted, aged gold with visible darkened oxidation and verdigris in the recessed areas, which serves to highlight the textural details. The surface demonstrates a natural aged patina consistent with mid-20th-century production, though it mimics 19th-century motifs. Condition-wise, the metal shows some surface scratching and minor pitting on the flat part of the base, but it remains structurally sound with no visible cracks or repairs. The item possesses a significant visual weight often associated with sand-cast brass decorative arts of the early to mid-1900s.