“Night and Day” 1920s Armor Bronze Bookends Michelangelo

Miniature recreations of the Michelangelo marble statues that grace the tomb of Giuliano de Medici — the artist’s allegorical representations of Night (female) and Day (male), a pair of reclining nude figures, each on a curved base. These antique bookends were made by the Armor Bronze Company circa 1920-1925, their name and logo incised into the base of each.

The Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence (1520-1534) was commissioned upon the deaths of the two young family heirs, Giuliano and Lorenzo, in 1516 and 1519. The tomb of Lorenzo is graced with the similarly themed “Dawn and Dusk” — which together with Giuliano’s “Night and Day” are among Michelangelo’s most famous and accomplished works.

A pair of antique bronze-clad figural book ends (electroformed bronze over a plaster core) with original and beautifully intact dark patina, the base of each measures 6.6 by 3.3 inches, heights are 6.5 and 6.6 inches, the pair weigh 6 lbs 7 oz, there are no breaks or tears in the bronze cladding, black felt on bottoms possibly original, both sit flat and stable, #713 in Kuritzky and De Costa.

They would make a wonderful wedding gift or anniversary gift, or a treasured bookshelf addition for any connoisseur of Renaissance art and literature!