Daum Prestige Eagle 05595 | Madeleine van der Knoop | Limited 8 | Sapphires | Bronze | Crystal | New

Daum Prestige Eagle 05595 | Madeleine van der Knoop | Limited 8 | Sapphires | Bronze | Crystal | New

(Retail price $542,000.00 USD)

✨ Eight Eagles. Worldwide. Forever.

98.4 inches tall. 454 pounds. Yellow sapphires and onyx set in yellow gold for the eyes. Patinated bronze. Polished Zimbabwe black granite. Pâte de cristal by Daum Nancy. Sculpted by the most celebrated bird sculptor alive. The Daum Prestige Eagle is not a decorative object. It is a monument — one of just eight that will ever exist anywhere on earth.

🦅 THE STORY BEHIND THE PIECE

There are luxury objects. There are significant collector pieces. There are museum-quality works. And then — at a level so far beyond all of these that the categories themselves become inadequate — there are those extraordinary, once-in-a-generation works that belong to a completely different order of human achievement. Works where the subject is of the deepest possible cultural and symbolic significance. Where the artist is the single most accomplished person in the world at capturing that subject. Where the manufacturing house is the only institution on earth capable of producing the piece in the medium it demands. And where the edition is so small — eight pieces — that for most of the world's population, in most of the world's lifetimes, this specific object will never be available to acquire again.

The Daum Prestige Eagle by Madeleine van der Knoop — reference 05595, produced in a strictly limited edition of just 8 pieces worldwide — is one of those works.

Madeleine van der Knoop is recognized internationally as one of the most accomplished and the most completely exceptional sculptors of birds working anywhere in the world today. Her specific gift — the ability to capture not simply the physical form of a bird but its movement, its spirit, its specific quality of alive and breathing presence in a sculptural medium — has established her as the definitive artist for subjects of this nature, the sculptor to whom the most prestigious institutions and the most discerning collectors turn when a bird sculpture of genuine artistic significance is required.

The eagle as her subject for this collaboration with Daum is a choice that carries the weight of thousands of years of human cultural history. The eagle — the Royal Eagle — has been the bird of the gods across virtually every major civilization in human history. In ancient Greece it was the sacred companion of Zeus, the supreme deity, its flight the most direct and the most powerful communication between the divine and the human. In ancient Rome it was the emblem of imperial power — the aquila that led the legions, the supreme symbol of Roman authority and Roman dominance. In the traditions of Native America the eagle carries prayers to the Creator, its feathers the most sacred objects in the ceremonial tradition. In the iconography of monarchy, of nations, of the most significant institutions of human civilization across the entire span of recorded history — the eagle is the supreme symbol of power, of elevation, of the specific quality of sovereignty that operates at the highest possible level.

This specific symbolic history — accumulated across five thousand years of human civilization — is what van der Knoop has captured in her Prestige Eagle. Not simply an eagle. The eagle — rendered at the scale and in the medium that its symbolic weight demands.

Daum — established in Nancy, France in 1878 and recognized for nearly one hundred and fifty years as the world's preeminent pâte de cristal house — provides the medium that makes van der Knoop's vision fully and completely possible. The lost wax technique — the most ancient and the most precise of all sculptural casting methods, used by the masters of ancient Greece and Rome and revived by the finest contemporary sculptors working in precious materials — allows every nuance of the original sculptural model to be captured in crystal with a fidelity and a depth of detail that no other technique approaches. Light dances across the crystal surfaces, revealing the force and beauty of this noble raptor in breathtaking detail — differently at every hour of the day, from every angle of observation, in every light condition, always extraordinary, always completely alive with the specific presence that van der Knoop's sculptural vision and Daum's crystal mastery together create.

The material palette of this sculpture is among the most ambitious and the most genuinely precious ever assembled for a single decorative art work. The pâte de cristal body of the eagle — the result of Daum's most demanding and most time-intensive production process applied at the largest scale the house has ever attempted for a single sculpture. The patinated bronze elements — warm, aged, possessed of the specific quality of genuine metal that has been given the depth and character of time. The polished Zimbabwe black granite base — one of the most prestigious and the most visually dramatic natural stone materials available anywhere in the world, its specific deep black providing the perfect visual foundation for the crystal and bronze above it.

And the eyes. The yellow sapphires — 1.7 carats — and onyx, set in yellow gold by specialist jewelers. To set precious gemstones in yellow gold for the eyes of a sculpture is not decoration. It is a statement — about the level of material ambition that this piece represents, about the specific quality of the eagle's gaze that only genuinely precious stones can capture, about the determination of everyone involved in the creation of this piece to produce something at the absolute highest possible level of every craft discipline it required.

At 98.4 inches tall, 43.3 inches long, 33.5 inches wide, and weighing 454 pounds with its granite base, the Prestige Eagle is a sculpture of genuinely monumental physical presence — a work that does not inhabit a space but defines it, transforms it, makes it a different kind of space from the moment the eagle arrives. This is the scale of institutional art. Of the great atriums and the great galleries of the world's most important museums and the most important private collections. Of the spaces that understand that the finest things require the finest settings and that the finest settings deserve the finest things.

8 pieces. Worldwide. Total. Ever.

THE LOST WAX TECHNIQUE AT THIS SCALE — WHY THIS IS UNPRECEDENTED

The lost wax casting technique is the oldest precision sculptural method in human history. Applied to pâte de cristal by Daum — the only crystal manufacturer in the world capable of executing this technique at this level of consistency and this level of artistic ambition — it produces a surface of extraordinary optical complexity, three-dimensional detail, and light-interactive quality that no other crystal production method can approach.

At the scale of the Prestige Eagle — 98.4 inches tall, weighing hundreds of pounds of crystal — the application of the lost wax technique represents a production achievement that simply has no parallel in the history of fine art crystal. The technical challenges of managing the crystal paste, the kiln temperatures, and the structural integrity of a piece of these dimensions across the firing process are challenges that only Daum, with nearly one hundred and fifty years of accumulated pâte de verre expertise, could meet. The fact that this piece exists — that it has been produced in 8 examples of this scale and this quality — is itself a testament to the extraordinary level of craft mastery that Daum brings to every collaboration it undertakes.

✦ KEY FEATURES

✦ Limited Edition of just 8 pieces worldwide — the most exclusive edition in the Daum catalog and one of the most exclusive editions in the history of fine art crystal

✦ Sculpted by Madeleine van der Knoop — internationally recognized as the world's most accomplished sculptor of birds and the definitive artist for subjects of this nature

✦ Yellow sapphires (1.7 carats) and onyx set in yellow gold — genuine precious gemstones for the eyes, set by specialist jewelers

✦ Pâte de cristal — lost wax technique — Daum's most demanding and most precise production method at the largest scale the house has ever attempted

✦ Patinated bronze accents — warm, aged, and possessed of the specific depth of genuine precious metalwork

✦ Polished Zimbabwe black granite base — one of the world's most prestigious natural stone materials providing the perfect visual foundation

✦ Monumental scale — 98.4 inches tall, 43.3 inches long, 454 pounds with base — a room-defining institutional presence

✦ The Royal Eagle — five thousand years of the supreme symbol of power, sovereignty, and spiritual elevation in human civilization

✦ Signed and documented — each of the 8 pieces individually authenticated as part of the strictly limited worldwide edition

📐 PRODUCT DETAILS

THE EAGLE AS SYMBOL — FIVE THOUSAND YEARS OF SUPREME AUTHORITY

The Royal Eagle has occupied the summit of human symbolic vocabulary since the earliest civilizations placed it there. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt it was the bird of the sun god — the creature that flew closest to the divine and carried messages between the worlds. In Greece and Rome it was the companion of the supreme deity and the emblem of imperial power. In the medieval heraldic tradition it was the symbol of the highest nobility and the most exalted royal authority. In the traditions of the Americas — both indigenous and national — it carries the deepest associations of freedom, of sovereignty, and of the specific quality of power that operates with complete authority and complete grace simultaneously.

No other bird and no other animal subject carries this weight of accumulated symbolic meaning across this breadth of human civilization. The eagle is the universal supreme symbol. And in van der Knoop's Prestige Eagle — in 454 pounds of crystal and bronze and gold and sapphires — it is given the material treatment that its symbolic weight has always deserved and rarely received at this level of completeness.

🎁 PERFECT FOR

• The most serious fine art collectors in the world — collectors whose acquisitions are made at the institutional level and whose collections include works of genuine museum significance

• Major corporate and institutional collections — headquarters, lobbies, boardrooms, and dedicated collection spaces where a work of this scale and this symbolic authority is the only appropriate choice

• Sovereign wealth funds, royal collections, and national institutions — for whom the Prestige Eagle's combination of the most sacred and the most universally recognized symbol of sovereign power with the finest French crystal artistry represents a uniquely appropriate acquisition

• The most significant private collectors of Daum France building collections around the house's most exclusive and most historically significant named artist collaborations

• Fine art investment portfolios at the highest level — 8 pieces worldwide from the most prestigious crystal house in the world, in a collaboration with the most celebrated bird sculptor alive, at a scale and a material level that has no precedent in the history of fine art crystal

• Anyone in the world for whom the acquisition of one of 8 examples of this specific work represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity that will not present itself again

🛡️ WHY BUY FROM US

✔ 100% authentic Daum France — signed, documented, and confirmed as part of the strictly limited worldwide edition of 8

✔ Brand new — pristine condition, complete in every detail including the granite base and all precious stone elements

✔ Experienced handling of fine art acquisitions at the highest price and significance tier

✔ White-glove worldwide delivery — 454 pounds of crystal, bronze, sapphires, and Zimbabwe granite handled with the absolute care this work demands

✔ Complete provenance documentation provided with the piece

✔ Responsive service for acquisitions of this significance — we understand what this purchase means and we treat it accordingly

⚡ A WORD ON AVAILABILITY

Eight pieces. In the entire world. For the most monumental, the most materially ambitious, and the most symbolically powerful fine art crystal sculpture that Daum has ever produced — in a collaboration with the most celebrated bird sculptor alive, with yellow sapphires set in yellow gold for the eyes, on a Zimbabwe black granite base, at a height of 98.4 inches and a weight of 454 pounds.

When these 8 examples have been placed with their owners — in the private collections, the institutional holdings, and the sovereign collections that will receive them — this specific work will cease to exist as an acquirable object. Permanently and completely. For anyone who has encountered this work, understood what it is, and felt the specific quality of recognition that only genuinely, historically extraordinary objects produce in people who have developed the knowledge and the taste to recognize them — the decision is simply whether to act before the remaining examples are gone.

📦 SHIPPING & DELIVERY

This piece requires specialist fine art white-glove delivery and professional installation due to its monumental scale and weight (454 lbs with base). Please contact us to discuss delivery logistics, crating specifications, and installation requirements for your specific location before purchasing. We work with specialist fine art logistics partners experienced in the transport of institutional-scale sculpture to any location worldwide.

Import Duties Import duties or taxes where applicable are the buyer's responsibility. We do not collect or control these fees. Please consult your local customs office and specialist fine art import advisor before purchasing.

Acknowledgment By purchasing from us you agree to our shipping and delivery terms as discussed and confirmed prior to purchase. For any questions please contact our customer service team directly — we are always available for acquisitions of this significance.