Originally from Marseille, where he produced two allegorical groups for the entrance to the Gare Saint-Charles, Le soleil et la Mer and Le Monde et l'Energie, Ary Bitter trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Marseille before moving to Paris in 1900. He joined the Barrias studio, then the Jules Coutan studio from 1904 to 1913. Usually exhibit at the Salon des Artistes Français, he won several awards. The bacchic and bucolic subjects that form the core of his work are fully in keeping with the Art Deco tastes of the 1930s. This was also his introduction to animal sculpture. In 1924, he won a gold medal at the Salon for a stone Diana. This piece will be produced from 1926 at the Manufacture de Sèvres. This prestigious award seemed to establish his reputation. Indeed, as he was invited by the Maison Susse the next year to take part in an exhibition alongside other animal artists such as Fiot, Godchaux and Guyot. This collaboration was an opportunity for Bitter to combine the useful and the aesthetic, with the creation of decorative objects. It was perhaps under Susse's impetus that several pairs of bookends were created, all with a similar aesthetic: wooden base and buttresses, with the same profile and light edging.