Luxury Brass Umbrella and Fireplace Tool Stand with Hunting Motifs — Historism Style (4468)

Dimensions approximately: Height — 55.5 cm Width — 32 cm

Brass Umbrella and Fireplace Tool Stand with Hunting Motifs — Historism Style

This unusually expressive and decorative cast antique brass stick and umbrella stand is a valuable example of late 19th-century European applied art. The item is multifunctional — it historically served as an elegant stand for umbrellas and walking sticks in the home’s entryway, as well as a container for fireplace tools (andiron brushes, pokers, and tongs) in aristocratic salons. The stand’s design is based on a lavish and narratively rich hunting theme, characteristic of the eclectic aesthetic of the late Historism period.

The base is shaped like a relief forest floor, upon which a faithful hunting hound lies. The vertical axis of the stand is formed by a realistically cast tree trunk with oak leaf tendrils, alongside which a hunting rifle and the hunted prey are placed. The upper part of the support shaft is adorned with a plastic casting of a hunting horn, while the very top handle-crown is decorated with a detailed deer head with antlers. In the middle part of the stand, a double-sided, branched framework is integrated, ensuring stable fixation of accessories or walking sticks. Such thematic, masculine, and aristocratic brass interior items were extremely popular in the second half and end of the 19th century in the estates, hunting lodges, and urban homes of the imperial and European elite, where hunting culture played a significant role in the daily lives of the upper echelons of society.

Craftsmanship & Period Dated to the late 19th century, approximately 1880–1890, when there was a high demand in European (especially or ) foundries for finely detailed brass and bronze interior items with historical and everyday themes.

Maker / Signature / Mark The stand is an outstanding and meticulous handcrafted piece from a professional art foundry. There are no industrial marks on the inner planes of the casting, indicating an artistic casting of limited circulation, made to special order for decorating salons or entryways.

Rarity & Significance Cast brass items with such a high degree of detail, where every hair of the dog, vein of the oak leaf, and element of the weapon is clearly visible, are a valuable find in the antique market. Such openwork, mobile stands are particularly rare to have survived without cracks, broken trunk parts, or deformed branch holders.

Application & Interior Use The stand can be perfectly used in its original function in the entryway as a luxury umbrella and stick holder, or as a magnificent accent next to the fireplace in historical interiors, hunting halls, and men’s studies, giving the room a distinct aristocratic character.

Condition Excellent antique condition. The cast brass construction is completely rigid and stable, without cracks or traces of soldering. The brass surface has a pleasant, calm, and natural patina of time with a noble sheen at the highest points of the relief. The condition of the item is fully reflected in the photographs.

Victorian snapshot: State Councillor and passionate hunter, Count Sergei Witte, returns from an early autumn hunt to his cozy Riga home’s entryway, where the room is filled with the quiet warmth of a fireplace and a smoky aroma. By the door, next to the massive oak cabinet, stands the elegant brass holder, its gilded metal shimmering pleasantly in the subdued light. His chilled fingers briefly touch the stand’s upper handle, feeling the embossed, cool casting of the deer’s head, before he places his precious walking stick next to the cast rifle. The brass hound lying at the base seems almost alive in the morning sunbeams, recalling the recently experienced silence of the forest. This exquisite creation by European masters brings an unexpected visual substance and masculine elegance to the home’s first room, immediately signaling the owner’s high status in imperial society.