Oscar Bach (German/American, 1884-1957), Vintage Bronze Dragon Arm Floor Lamp

New York, circa 1920s, patinated bronze, cast as a tall shaped scepter surmounted with scrolled dragon head medallion terminating in a foliate arm with electrified single socket, engraved metal label to the base.

German-born Oscar Bruno Bach was one of the most talented and commercially successful metalworkers in America during the first half of the twentieth century. After studying and working in Europe and winning the Grand Prize at the World’s Exposition in Turin for a bed he designed for Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1911, Bach moved to New York and opened a metal design studio with his brother Max. Bach exhibited his work routinely at The Metropolitan Museum’s industrial art exhibitions as well as at other museums. The Architectural League of New York awarded him a medal of honor for design and craftsmanship in industrial art in 1926, and he received countless commissions for domestic and public architectural projects including the Woolworth Building, Riverside Church, Toledo Museum of Art, Temple Emanu-El, Cranbrook School, the Chrysler Building, and Radio City Music Hall. Bach successfully retailed his metalwork throughout the United States through department stores such as Manhattan’s B. Altman, Joseph Horne in Pittsburgh, and Toledo’s Forster-Smith Co. Many prominent homes and public buildings across the United States featured Bach’s metalwork, and his designs helped define taste and style for his era.

Scattered surface wear to the patina and areas of verdigris spotting; later wiring; operating at the time of review.