A rare Edwardian cold painted bronze letter or stationery clip, circa 1905, possibly by Alexander Jones & Co., Writing and Dressing Case Makers, 154 Regents Street, London, finely cast in bronze as a bay horse with jockey up jumping a fence, original painted detailing, on an oak plinth with retractable brass hanging loop.
This letter clip fits into a production of similar novelty letter clips made in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. It seems likely that the bronze figures were cast in Austria, probably by Franz Bergman, and imported into England where they were mounted and sold by a high-end maker. This example is mounted on an English oak plinth, others are known to be mounted on walnut and mahogany. Other known depictions include a running hound and a running fox, even a tiger and a grasshopper! But we cannot find a precedent for this horseracing model. An example cast as a stag’s head, sold in 2019, was labelled for ‘Alexander Jones & Co,…Writing and Dressing Case Makers, 154 Regents Street’.
