John Ruhl was a noted American sculptor and graduate of the Metropolitan Museum of Art School. During his career he worked on a number of significant projects including the Lincoln Memorial and the marble lions in front of the New York Public Library. He is well known to collectors for his work creating bookends for several manufacturers from about 1915 until his death in 1940. This fanciful pair of "French bronze" Art Deco bookends was designed for the J.B. Hirsch Co. of New York. They depict a man in colonial dress stacking and being overwhelmed by a collapsing pile of books. The bases are ebonized and gilded metal and the heads are ivorine. 7" h., 4 1/2" l., 3" w. American, c. 1930's
SOLD
