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Rock Crystal Polar Bear Carving by Manfred Wild
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Rock Crystal Polar Bear Carving by Manfred Wild
Naturalistically carved from a single piece of transparent rock crystal quartz to depict a seated male polar bearing with textured fur, with smoky quartz nose and cabochon sapphire eyes. Signed with monogram EB for Emil Becker and M. Wild for Manfred Wild. Measuring 7 x 5 x 5 1/2 in
Footnotes
Manfred Wild
Born in 1944, Manfred Wild, an eighth-generation gem cutter, is one of the most renowned lapidary artists to emerge from Idar-Oberstein. At the age of twenty, during an apprenticeship with a gemstone merchant, he began his well-rounded educational journey in the areas of fine art, gemstone cutting, engraving and goldsmithing. Working in a family tradition of stone cutters established in 1630, Manfred Wild is one of the world's most famous creators of objets d'art. He is best known for his virtuoso work in rare, precious and semi-precious materials carved as perfume bottles, animals, whimsical figures, flower studies, enameled eggs with concealed "surprises", cameos, chalices and objets de fantaisie made of precious stones, gold and silver. Mr. Wild's works are displayed in museums throughout the world including: The German Gemstone Museum in Idar-Oberstein, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., The Harvard Museum in Boston, The Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh and The Iksan Jewellery Museum in Korea, as well as extensive private collections in Japan, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States of America.

