Gaston Lachaise (1882-1935). Turkey [LF 146], hood ornament, one of three examples. Bronze, mounted on black Belgian marble base. Inscribed on reverse: G. LACHAISE © 1924. Turkey 4.25in high x 3 7/8in x 3 1/8in. Overall size 6.25 in high. Model by 1924; cast in 1924 or 1925. Provenance: Gaston Lachaise; Isabel Lachaise, widow of the above; Unidentified Owner(s) Private Collection, Boston Area. The present bronze cast of Gaston Lachaise’s Turkey [LF 146] represents the smaller of two very similar sculptures by Lachaise of a proud Eastern Wild Turkey, an indigenous bird. The plaster model of the other, life-size version [LF 314], designed for a garden, is illustrated in Augusta Owen Patterson, “Arts and Decoration,” Town & County, vol. 81, May 15, 1924, p. 46. Although very positively received by art critics, that “gorgeous” model (New York Times, June 15, 1924, Magazine, p. 13) was never cast in bronze and was lost sometime before about 1938. The smaller version of Turkey, intended by Lachaise as a nickel-plated ornament for a radiator cap, was officially copyrighted on June 10, 1924, and three bronze casts were produced in 1924 and 1925. At least one of these was mounted on a cap, and all three, together with the damaged plaster model, were still in the possession of Lachaise’s widow as of about 1938. One was sold by her in 1956 to a private collector, and another, by the Lachaise Foundation (which manages the artist’s estate), by 1977. What happened to the third cast is unknown. The present cast is one of those three bronzes. The damaged plaster model no longer exists, and no other casts have been made. In response to the fashionable demand for such delightful automobile accessories, Lachaise made several other hood ornaments, including Bee [LF 199], which was copyrighted on November 28, 1924, and unsuccessfully offered for sale to the Ford Motor Company for $10,000 (some $180,000 in today’s money); a nickel-plated bronze example lacking a cap is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Entry prepared by Virginia Budny, author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné sponsored by the Lachaise FoundationLiterature, Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4, n.s. vol. 19, no. 3, p. 177, Washington, D.C., 1924, p. 177 (plaster model referenced).The Arts Club of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Original Sculpture by Gaston Lachaise, exhibition catalogue, Chicago, Illinois, 1925, no. 32 (nickel-plated example referenced).D.B. Goodall, Gaston Lachaise, Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. 522; vol. 2, p. 491 (three examples referenced). The Sculpture of Gaston Lachaise, New York, 1967, p. 49, nos. 50, 51 (example mounted on radiator cap illustrated).V. Budny, "Gaston Lachaise—The Applied Arts," Sculpture Review, vol. 57, no. 1, Spring 2008, pp. 16, 17, 18 (example mounted on radiator cap illustrated).