Rattlesnake.....

Renowned as a prolific illustrator, painter, writer and sculptor Frederic Remington enjoyed a career which spanned the late 1800's into the early 1900's.

To my eye this is his best sculpture - Rattlesnake - capturing volume, mass, proportion, balance, detail, use of space and the implied power and motion of the figures.
Here is a detail showing the cause of the horse's rearing - the rattlesnake.

......and the artist's signature.

Following Remington's premature death unauthorized reproductions of his work were made from casts of his original works. Typically they were made in three sizes - small 10-12 inch models; medium 16-18 inch; large 30 inch. This one I own is of medium size. It was offered at auction along with another titled 'Cheyenne'; I won the bidding and had the choice to buy both or either one. I wasn't partial to Cheyenne and declined it, opting for Rattlesnake. It wasn't until after the deal was done that Lynda piped up and said she'd have liked to have had Cheyenne for herself. Argghh - too late.

Not long afterward we were in a small dingy auction hall in the country where we spied a large fullsized tabletop version of another of Remington's work - 'Coming Through The Rye'. The sale wasn't well attended and our hopes were that no one else would be aware of it's value and that there was no reserve on it. One other person began bidding against us and it quickly became obvious as the price escalated in $10 & $20 increments they weren't about to quit either. I opted out at $500. I still have no idea what I would have done with it as it was so big and heavy - it is cast bronze after all - but I wanted it so bad my teeth hurt.