Vintage Fontanini #941 Cigar-Smoking Clown on Carrara Marble – Italy

Fontanini #941 Cigar-Smoking Clown

A highly characterful vintage Fontanini Depose Italy #941 figurative sculpture depicting a flamboyantly dressed clown confidently holding a cigar.

Hand-painted in Italy, the figure features exaggerated theatrical facial features, vivid green hair, colorful patchwork clothing, and expressive painted detailing throughout. The cigar-smoking subject gives the sculpture a particularly unusual place within the visual history of smoking in decorative and popular art.

The reverse of the figure is impressed:

DEPOSE ITALY 941

The sculpture is mounted on a substantial genuine Carrara marble base retaining its original gold label reading:

GENUINE CARRARA MARBLE – MADE IN ITALY

This example also retains its original Fontanini hang tag, adding significantly to its presentation and collectibility.

Smoking Imagery in Popular Art

Cigars have long appeared in caricature, advertising, portraiture, entertainment imagery, and decorative objects as visual symbols of personality, leisure, confidence, and excess.

In this sculpture, the cigar becomes part of the clown’s exaggerated theatrical identity, transforming a humorous decorative figure into an especially distinctive smoking-related collectible.

Within the History of Smoke Collection, the piece represents the intersection of cigar culture, Italian decorative sculpture, popular imagery, and 20th-century smoking iconography.

Details

Maker: Fontanini
Model: #941
Marking: DEPOSE ITALY 941
Origin: Italy
Subject: Cigar-Smoking Clown
Type: Hand-Painted Figurative Sculpture
Base: Genuine Carrara Marble
Original Label: Genuine Carrara Marble – Made in Italy
Original Fontanini Hang Tag: Present
Dimensions: Approx. 8.25″ H × 4.0″ base width
Collection: History of Smoke Collection

Condition

Very good vintage display condition overall with age-related surface wear, minor marks, scuffs, and localized finish wear.

The Carrara marble base shows scratches and natural surface variation consistent with age and display.

Please review all photographs carefully for exact condition, coloration, markings, labels, and included elements.

A wonderfully eccentric piece of vintage smoking art and Italian decorative design, with particular appeal for collectors of cigar memorabilia, Fontanini figures, clown art, smoking history, tobacco culture, lounge décor, and unusual conversation pieces.