Bidspirit auction | Modern Art: Designed Wooden Chanukkiya

Modern Art: Designed Wooden Chanukkiya by the Artist Georges Weil. Israel 1990s - Hand-colored wooden Hanukkah Menorah, made of two opposite parts with wooden layers of varied depths. The Chanukkiya was made by the English artist Georges Weil.  Georges Weil was a talented, autodidact, most colorful artist. Collectors of Weil's works included Frank Sinatra, Sammy David Jr., Peter Sellers, Queen Elizabeth of England, and the Hollywood Queen - Elizabeth Taylor. One art critic of the Illustrated London News, wishing to express his appreciation of Weil's work, went so far as to declare, “Fabergé objects, exquisite as they are, and superb as their workmanship is, are really no more than expensive toys – Weil’s pieces are works of art”. Biography: Weil was born in 1938 in Vienna and his family was one of the last to escape via Antwerp to London in 1939. Although not much is known of his early life, it is known that Weil briefly attended London’s St. Martins School of Art in 1956. He studied sculpturing and jewellery design, describing himself first as a sculptor and only then as a jewellery designer. In 1969, Weil made works for the Jean Renet Gallery, which opened on Bond St. and an exhibition of his works was held in 1971. Weil's works in this early period included bronze portrait-sculptures of David Ben-Gurion and Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and the singer/actor Sammy Davis Jr. Weil also began to create sculpture made of gold, silver and precious gems, jewelry as objects d’art, which earned him glowing press reviews that compared his work to that of Cellini and Fabergé. Many of Weil’s sculptures in precious metal depict distinctly Jewish themes. His wide variety of works indicate that several themes interested Weil at different times. Jewry with its varied content is an especially central motif, as well as Jewish symbols, the circle of the year and the Holocaust. Provenance: The Weil Family Collection, London-England.