Gilt Bronze Car Mascots. Gilding can apply to any object which has a layer of thin gold. Below are some bronze car mascots / hood ornaments made of bronze and gilded.
Gilding is any decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold to solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as “gilt”. Where metal is gilded, it was traditionally silver in the West, to make silver-gilt (or vermeil) objects, but gilt-bronze is commonly used in China, and also called ormolu if it is Western. Methods of gilding include hand application and gluing, typically of gold leaf, chemical gilding, and electroplating, the last also called gold plating. Parcel-gilt (partial gilt) objects are only gilded over part of their surfaces. This may mean that all of the inside, and none of the outside, of a chalice or similar vessel is gilded, or that patterns or images are made up by using a combination of gilt and ungilted areas. Reference: Wikipedia
A rare ‘Boy Riding Pig’ mascot by Franz Bergmann, Austrian, circa 1910, signed ‘Nam Greb’ to base, cold-painted bronze with subtle gilt, green and brown hues, finely detailed mascot depicting a small boy with pointed hat, bag, and holding a four-leaf clover riding a rotund pig jumping over a Kilometre distance road marker, 14cm high, mounted on a Bakelite radiator cap and above a turned wooden display base.
Sold for £ 3,750 inc. premium at Bonhams in 2017
Art Deco Gilt Bronze Scarf Dancer Car Mascot, after Lorenzl, c.1925 unsigned height 6.3″ — 16 cm.
Sold For CA$220 at Waddington’s Auctioneers and Appraisers in 2019
