Style Other / Ref.14874

Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs, decorative gilded bronze plaque in the form of a shield, featuring Winged Victory and trophies of arms

A gilded bronze decorative plaque in high relief, shield-shaped with a lobed and irregular contour. The main field features a winged female figure in flight—an allegory of Winged Victory in the antique style—draped at the waist and holding a horizontal spear with both hands, set against a background of billowing clouds rendered in low relief. The model, showing great finesse in execution, displays a treatment of plumage and drapery of a quality comparable to the production of top-tier Parisian art foundries.

The shield’s frame is adorned with a frieze of oves and foliage. To the left, an imposing military trophy combines a quiver filled with arrows, a torch, a plumed helmet, and a secondary shield enhanced with an effigy medallion, all linked by a chain and flanked by a high-relief garland of roses, chrysanthemums, and wildflowers. To the right, a bundle of radiant palms and, in the lower corner, a sword hilt with a rectangular guard engraved with scrolling rinceaux. At the top, a warrior’s helmet with a foliated crest completes this ensemble of trophies of arms, characteristic of the Neo-Renaissance and Second Empire decorative vocabulary.

The reverse, painted in ochre yellow, bears the stamped hallmark of the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. Founded in 1864, this institution’s exhibitions served as the primary forum for applied arts in France under the Second Empire and the Third Republic. This stamp attests that the piece belongs to the realm of ceremonial productions intended for exhibitions or institutional commissions of the period.