The sculpture shown on top of my home-built gothic church table. I built two of these tables for myself for a night-stand and a studio computer stand after an extant antique in a London antique store.

BELOW: Photos of my original clay model used for the mold;

Video of the model;

Now the first cast after drying out completely, is shown mounted on my bedroom wall in the same orientation as the original extant gargoyles on Public School 168 which inspired this model. The cast weighs 75#

Measurements of the sculpture:

Nominal 23-1/2" long, 13" wide, 75#

History of the antique originals on the school

The head shown on another page is one of my casts from the 1980's, the original was a full bodied gothic Griffin or Gargoyle which I salvaged from a Public School located on East 104th and 105th Street in Manhattan. The school is shown in photos from 1920 and probably dates to around 1906 when many schools were constructed in this style in NYC according to a standardized "H" shaped floor plan. Google maps show the building is still there, with a new roof- probably converted into apartments.

Information about the former school which has been renovated into apartments;

Borough: Manhattan Block: 1676 Lot: 11
Address; 317 EAST 104 STREET, 10029 Lot Area: 30275 sq. feet Lot Frontage: 150 feet Lot Depth: 201.83 feet
Year built: 1910
Number of floors: 5 Building Gross Area: 202750 sq. feet
Residential Units: 88
C B J Snyder, architect and supt of schools.

Photos of the school

Photo below of the 105th Street side taken in 1920

Photo below of the 104th Street side taken in 1940

Photo enlargement 300%, blue arrows point to the original Griffin's locations

The school was abandoned and sat open and vandalized in 1976 when I happened to find it.

The Griffins were installed in pairs, one pair on either side of each dormer, as the building was the then standard school "H" shape, it allowed a playground area on both sides that way and more light inside. The terra cotta surrounded dormers were extraordinarily large and can be seen even in the photos- projecting high above the gabled roof. There were about 14 of these dormers. Most were not accessable to me, but several were located next to large glass skylights which allowed me with the help of a friend to climb up to the roof next to them.

We used a couple of ropes, one for me as this WAS the 6th floor after all, and one thrown up over the top of the dormer to secure the Griffin. Surprisingly it didn't take much to remove them off their verticle blocks with a hammer and chisel. An interesting aside, apparantly the head of one had been broken off during construction of the school, someone had glued it back on with brown hot melt glue! It amazingly held all those years and could have fallen off into the playground at anytime and killed someone! but the small amount of vibration from my hammer and chisel on the base of the Griffin was enough to break the bond and the head fell off down into the courtyard, it was totally smashed.

I mostly remember it was a cold January in 1976 that we salvaged a few of these over a few days or so, and went back other times for more, but I still vividly remember the 1 degree temperature and icy cold WIND I experienced on at least one of those excursions.

The sculpture I am selling comes with a hook on the back to mount on the wall, the suggested finish is the Old Limestone Grey which would be the most authentic looking on this piece.

This is a very complex model which took considerable time and skills to create, the mold likewise was very complex and expensive to make, and the casts are time-consuming and labor-intensive to properly and carefully cast free of defects. Finishing also takes additional time due to the large amount of undercuts and deep details and surfaces, all of this has to be taken into account for pricing.

I have set the price on this very unique and dramatic sculpture at $325 plus the shipping which is outlined below.

SHIPPING

These must ship in a plywood crate for maximum protection, the time and materials to build these crates is $20 and the flat cost shipping is $35 for a total of $55.

Do understand these crates are typically only built on weekend around client orders and modelling tasks, and these do take about an hour to cut, measure and construct. The sculpture is approx 75#, with the wood crate it will ship over 100# and there is additional surcharge billed to me for both the shipment not being in a cardboard container, and the weight over 100#, so the $35 for shipping is partially subsidized as the actual cost is always higher when I get the bills.

I use FedEx ground service for all shipments in the lower 48 states. I no longer ship outside the US.

Shipping charges if displayed here, are for my standard INTERIOR cast-stone versions only!

This will NOT be available in concrete.

Username: client
PW: mail

This sculpture will take approx a 2 week production time.