A miniature Wiener bronze depicting donkey with his packsadle, Austria 1890.

Austria circa 1890.

This is a delightful and classic example of a Vienna bronze (Wiener Bronze). The subject is a harnessed pack donkey carrying two classic wicker saddle baskets (panniers) on its flanks.The craftsmanship is highly naturalistic and rich in expressive details—stylistic hallmarks that have made Vienna bronzes famous worldwide. The donkey’s expression, the woven texture of the baskets, the harness straps, and the saddle are all rendered with remarkable precision, despite the object’s small size. Vienna bronzes were almost always cold-painted (using special lacquers rather than fired enamels).Underneath the basket is a model number (or Modellnummer), in this case, 4382. Major Viennese manufactories (such as Bergmann and his contemporaries) carried thousands of different models in their catalogs: cats, dogs, birds, Orientalist scenes, and, of course, beasts of burden. Each unique registered design received an identification number, which helped craftsmen locate the correct mold in the workshops and manage customer orders.” Austria circa 1890.

1,5” – 4 CM H 2” – 5 CM L 1,3” – 3 CM D

REF: M5091