EAGLE DESK ORNAMENT real or fake?

[Hgagnon]

Another acquisition

This desk ornament is heavy. about 7" long by 4" wide.

No marking at all that I can see.

feel like Marble base, maybe brass eagle, steel flat under.

Looks like a plaque was glued before...

Your opinion would be appreciated.

[mloppkit]

Hi Hgagnon,

I love it more than life itself. Damn these originals are hard to find- congratulations, eagle is bronze and early.
We nearly always only see both good quality and poor quality reproductions of this bird show up, so nice to see one of only a handful of known originals.
A very interesting base as well, such a shame that the plaque is lost to time but still a beautiful eagle. Thanks for posting

[Saladin]

What a really excellent quality eagle.
It is a fine period original in my opinion.
Is there any chance of seeing a picture of the back side please?
I would have no hesitation of adding this one to my collection.

All the best
Doug

[Hgagnon]

Well gentlemen,
I am please to hear your comment.

I will now research a value for this ornament..

Thanks again.

[harryamb2]

[ajax3985]

I am unsure why everyone is enthusiastic. Chances are its bad and the photos are not nearly enough.

[Hgagnon]

Why chances are????
If the photos are not enough, what else would you like me to find out?

[big ned]

I've been watching this all day and waiting to see when someone would have the temerity to suggest it's just a piece of cobbled together "junk". Let's look at the sum of it's parts:

An eagle that may or not be an original piece, but no detailed and close photo's are supplied of the expected makers mark, foundry marks or the artist that could be reasonably assumed to be unobtrusively found on it's base or rim to aid calling it one way or the other.

The rest of the item shows no artistic or aesthetic quality whatsoever really, the eagle sitting squatly on a bent piece of badly fitting sheet brass that's sitting on a roughly varnished piece of broken marble that appears to be off an old wash stand rather than a deliberate, carefully manufactured base that would present this party eagle in it's best possible sculptural attitude. Then, looking at the bottom of the base, the eagle is secured by a single black japanned slotted screw through a ragged piece of indeterminate material that seems to have four feet that appear very similar to the screw covers on a bathroom mirror.

I'm sorry, but this piece to my eyes is a hastily put together piece that you can find being sold by some chancer on ebay on any given day of the year. I can only suggest that you make the time to take some more detailed close up photo's of the points I've raised to give anyone a real chance of giving an accurate assessment as to whether this item is genuine or not. On the evidence above I wouldn't give it a second glance I'm afraid. Sorry if this upsets you, no malice or offence is intended, it's just my personal opinion on the evidence supplied so far.

Absit Invidia, Ned.

[Hgagnon]

No offence taken.
That is why I was asking you the reason for your previous post.
Like I explained in previous threads and post, I am totally new on this site, and I just got hold of a huge collection of WW1 and WW2 items, aver 3500 items from German, US, Canadian, Japanese,...
I am in the process of selling most of it, and when it comes to German items, their is so many replica out there, that I needed some help to make sure it is not fake or refurbish.
This said, most of my Canadian and US and Japanese items are original and real. Which incline me to believe that the German might be too. but after posting multiple items, about 50% of my items posted are either fake repro from the 70's or an item made of other items.

I will take closer pictures of this one, and even remove that screw to see under the Eagle... i am no problem doing this. and post it.

Items being fake and being told that they are , do not offend me at all. What offend me, is when I am told that they are fake, and people make me a low offer, and afterward finding out it was a real item...

But, I do thank you for your post...

[mloppkit]

I don't think there is any doubt that the marble/ granite base the eagle sits on now is not the original base that the eagle would have had when it was bought or issued.
It appears to me that the eagle has been removed from its original base at some point and mounted to its current non-standard, non-issued base.
Unfortunately the plaque that Hgagnon refers to is missing which makes it difficult to ascertain whether the base is period or not. In my opinion, the base would certainly have taken some effort to manufacture, cutting out the plated brass sheet exactly to the profile of the marble, adding the feet etc - a lot of work for a faker to go to for very little return when he could have just mounted the eagle to a piece of period or non period marble as most of the repro versions of this eagle we see. I respect Big Neds and J.Wraith's opinion and believe that I understand why they have taken their position- this bird is reproduced a lot and the non-standard base would also immediately raise questions. Big Ned refers to an expected makers mark, foundry mark, artist mark etc but I personally have never seen an original version of this eagle with any of those marks. In fact there is a repro version of this eagle that displays a bogus Arno Breker artist mark when we know from photos of this eagle in the haus der kunst that he was not the designer of this eagle. In the absence of better photos or a photo of the back of the eagle, I still believe that this eagle is original, I have compared the posted photos with a known Canadian vet-return original and a number of different repros and this bird so far ticks all the boxes. I am aware that it is far more difficult to prove an eagle original than to label one a fake and it would be easier for me to also label this a repro than to justify it as an original but I would be doing Hgagnon a disservice. I would be comfortable adding a bird like this to my collection- although I would probably return it to an original style base. I am reluctant to give any reproducers a helping hand so for now will just post some repro examples.