Lion and Trapper Bronze after C.M. Russell, Marble Base

This Lion and Trapper bronze shows a bearded trapper in a fur cap on a rearing horse. He has his rifle raised by the barrel to club a mountain lion that is climbing the rock toward the horse's front legs. The brass plaque on the green marble base credits the design to C.M. Russell.

Charles Marion Russell was born in St. Louis in 1864, went to Montana at 16, and spent the rest of his life there, mostly near Great Falls. He made about 4,000 works, including paintings, drawings and small models in wax and clay, and some of those models were cast in bronze. His original bronzes are prized: Buffalo Hunt sold for $4.1 million in 2008.

We found no record of a Russell original by this name in museum collections or major auction results. Every example on record is a later casting sold under Russell's name, in sizes from about 13 to 18 inches. One eBay seller lists the model as a licensed reproduction, and auction houses in Montana and New Hampshire have sold it as a decorative bronze, not as a Russell original.

How it's dated: there is no date, foundry stamp or country label on this piece, so the date comes from its format. Western bronze copies on green marble bases with engraved brass title plaques were sold in large numbers in the late 20th century. Auction houses catalog this exact format as late 20th century recasts, and a seller dates a marble-base copy of Remington's Mountain Man to the 1980s. An Antiques Roadshow appraiser also noted that original Russell and Remington bronzes were not mounted on marble. Taken together, this piece was most likely made between the 1970s and the 1990s.

Russell's life and auction record from Wikipedia. Listings and sales of the same model from eBay, WorthPoint, Davis Brothers Auction (via Invaluable) and NH Auctions & Appraisals. Dating evidence from Marion Antique Auctions, an eBay listing, and Antiques Roadshow. Construction and condition from the owner's photos.