For thirty years, I have been collecting works by the Danish sculptor Knud Carl Edvard Kyhn. He was born in 1880 and, after completing art school, began his career working for various Danish ceramics manufacturers: Royal Copenhagen, Herman Kahler, Bing & Grondahl. The bulk of his working years was at Royal Copenhagen where he designed (and supervised the production of) a line of stoneware sculptures finished with "Sung" glazes. Most of these were animals though there were the occasional people or mythological creatures. Royal Copenhagen was in the business of producing "collectable artwork" so they carefully produced a limited number of each design every year (enough to satisfy the collector's market without over-saturating the market with too many pieces). For this reason, many of the pieces are marked with a date code which indicates the year during which each piece was made.
Knud Kyhn was also a painter and illustrator. He died in 1969.
The stoneware sculpture, shown above, is dated 1955. It portrays a mother monkey embracing a pair of her babies. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
We also can be found in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania at The Antique Center of Strabane (www.antiquecenterofstrabane.com).
Or call to arrange to visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only). 917-446-4248