Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

Model is done now, waiting on it’s drying out before molding

Progress as of last night on the clay model.

Original design by Isadore Kaplan, New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company for architect George F Pelham, 1928.

I believe this was to be a finial at the top of the wall.
Replica in clay by Randall from original photos.

I haven’t had time to really get into this model as quickly as I like so it is going slowly as I find time.
I am working from an old book photo which is scanned at the bottom, and using it for reference.
I assume the original plaster model the photo is of was probably sanded very smooth as it appears to be very smooth, on my models however I like texture and leaving tool marks- especially the notched wood tool used lightly at a low angle to smooth surfaces and impart a little tooling texture. So my model will not be smooth like the original, I also find the flat photo a little confusing at the top and while I was working on the inner portion of the top shell shape I liked the more dramatic scalloping that seemed to naturally develope, so I decided to emphasize that and develop it a little deeper.
The design is a more difficult than it looks, very subtle angles which can be seen in the old photo but not well and not from the side, so some of this has to be guessed at from what was typical.
Whether the original carried the design on the sides or not the photo doesn’t show, I decided to carry the design  of the leaves around the sides.

Reproductions of this circa 1899 keystone will be available maybe the End of November.

127 Pitt Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side had four of these that I removed from the 6th floor of the 7 story tenement. The building was built in 1901 and this design has been found on a few other buildings around NYC, most likely designed by the same architect from stock designs.

SIZE; 25′ x 87′
CONSTRUCTION COST; $22,000.00 (1901)
OWNER; L L Richman 89 Bowery
ARCHITECT; Kurtzer & Rohl 190 Bowery

The keystone depicts an atypical figure for these architectural sculptures, typically these depicted mythical or fantasy figures, Gods from Greek and Roman mythology; (Mercury, Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Venus, Pan etc) grotesques, beasts and so forth. This sculpture however is a rarer depiction apparently done from real life portraiture, if not of a specific individual in the sculptor’s life, then at the very least a compilation of several persons likely known to the sculptor.

The modelling is also slightly deeper than usual, closer to a 3/4 round portrait of the head which is also not typical for several reasons, some having to do with added weight, increased difficulty in pressing the clay into the deeper moulds and so forth.

This most certainly depicted a bearded sailor in the uniform or attire of the day, a portrait of a familiar-to-the-sculptor working man of the sea, ships and docks.

The man this depicted only a hundred years ago if one thinks about it- worked on wooden ships operated by wind not engines, this keystone was probably made by the major company that supplied much of these to architects in New York City- The Atlantic Terra Cotta Co on Staten Island. It was hand pressed clay, fired in a huge kiln heated by dirty coal, it was then transported to the building by ship up the Hudson River from the factory, and then completed it’s voyage on the back of a wagon pulled by horses.

Once installed, he looked down on the street for decades, dirty coal soot from coal burning back then quickly permanently stained building facades, especially the unglazed terra cotta like this. Falling ice, hail, or debris during construction often damages the projecting corners of these keystones, and more damage occurs during demolition from falling bricks and lumber.

Some of the damage on the original will be temporarily restored for the mold, while the corners will be left as is since this reflects the original’s older history.

Since the design was already in use by 1901 when 127 Pitt Street was constructed, and these were usually installed on the later era tenements of 7 stories in height, I would date the modelling of the original sculpture and it’s first use to about 1899. Shortly after the 1901 tenement law code changes, these typical nominal lot size 25′x85′ 6 and 7 story tenements were for all intents and purposes involuntarily “phased out” as costs to build them dramatically increased with the new requirements, smaller speculators and individual land owners could no longer afford to build single tenement buildings. As a result this left the large scale speculators who could only afford to build these in groups of several in a row to recoup investments.

Additional code requirements in the 1901 change also meant the designs had to change to accomodate wider lots, more air shafts, wider stairwells, every toom having to have windows and so on.

By around the 1910′s these buildings were no longer built, and with their demise also went a considerable amount of these keystones and other Victorian era ornaments that were designed to decorate these small buildings.

Soon, with architects like Sullivan, Wright and others came the more streamlined facades, the Art Deco period, taller, wider and having only accents here and there on the facade, and finally the entire architectural terra cotta industry as it existed- over 100 companies built up solely around the concept of decorating building facades- were largely gone and defunct by WWll