🖋️ Description

An exceptional Art Deco wax bust depicting a glamorous young woman with delicately painted features — soft rose cheeks, deep blue glass eyes, and subtly parted red lips, capturing the lively elegance of the Années Folles (Roaring Twenties).
Her hair, intricately styled in marcel waves, frames her face in perfect 1920s fashion. She is dressed in a draped satin-finish gown of pale gold tones, the surface carefully tinted to mimic silk.

The bust is mounted on a wax composite core, signed “Larmelez, Paris”, and was designed to display jewelry, wigs, hats, or headdresses on the counters of grand Parisian department stores such as Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, or Bon Marché.
The overall modeling — refined yet sensual — reflects the idealized beauty promoted in fashion and cinema between the wars.

IT is a Wax Bust by Larmelez, Paris
Circa 1925
Painted wax and plaster composite with glass eyes, signed to reverse.
Created for the display of wigs, jewelry, and fashion accessories in luxury Parisian boutiques.
The bust epitomizes the modern elegance of the Art Deco era — an exquisite fusion of sculpture and commercial artistry.

🪞 History

During the 1910s–1930s, Paris was at the center of visual merchandising innovation. Department stores began to use lifelike wax busts and mannequins not merely as display tools but as objects of art, embodying the spirit of the modern woman.
These busts were often produced by ateliers such as Imans, Siegel, Laird, or Larmelez, and were hand-painted to achieve an extraordinary realism that photography of the time could not yet convey.

The women they portrayed — with their bobbed hair, smoky eyes, and luminous complexions — reflected the new freedom of the flapper era: independent, confident, and irresistibly stylish.
Their faces often drew inspiration from silent film stars and cabaret performers, echoing the glamour of Josephine Baker, Louise Brooks, or Mistinguett.

MUS-036