B is for Bronze

Saw a nice model of a toy lizard the other day which was very good for the type of cheapie-rubber thing it was, in fact it was so good it reminded me of my mother's bronze, which was a great favourite with my brother and I when we were kids, to the point where I mused it might be a copy of the bronze and I commented to that effect...

...and went off to dig out the metal one and photograph it. It's not the same, the pose and detail are different but the treatment of the eyes is similar and they are about the same - true to life - size.

Probably German, I don't know whether it's cast solid bronze or a cold-cast bronzed-resin, it's heavy enough to be solid, and the quality hints at 'hot bronze' but the little holes in the underside [Between the front and back pairs of legs] may be for weighting with lead?

[Next day] Thanks to Paul's Bod's Paul I can now add that it's a Wiener bronze, and was also used by Alfred Dunhill for ash-trays, although this one would have been mounted on a block of pale marble (hence the two mounting holes with a darker marble sphere held in the crook of the tail (hence its odd angle). It is a solid 'hot bronze' not 'yer cheep'o resinous crap'!

Google Image Search