"Bar Cabinet w/ Forest Motif", Art Deco Masterwork w/ Bronze Mounts, Oscar Bach

One of the greatest masterpieces ever created by Oscar Bach -- who made the enormous sculptural rondels on the facade of Radio City Music Hall designed by Hildreth Meière, and the large relief sculpture in stainless steel inside the Empire State Building's lobby -- this dry bar is adorned with no fewer than 17 bronze mounts with forest and hunting motifs. The two central human figures are flanked by relief figures of deer, lions, wolves, fox and bear, all beautifully cast, chased and patinated. Remarkably, the two lions' heads on the bottom serve as pulls for two horizontal bars that extend from the cabinet to support the bar door, which lowers down. Inside, the bar is lined with glass and Lucite. The body of the bar is wood painted in a gorgeous, midnight blue color. Oscar Bach was, along with Samuel Yellin, one of America's premier metalworkers in the 1920s and 1930s. His shop in New York crafted countless sculptures, lighting fixtures and furniture for wealthy homeowners and institutions across America. He also crafted a line of very fine tabletop decorative items, usually composed of bronze or silvered metal. This bar is unique in Bach's oeuvre, and was no doubt commissioned by a wealthy home owner during the Depression.