Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

The first cast from my model in the bright gold finish.

I found a pair of these, one was damaged but this one was in good shape.

The holes on the side were done at the terra cotta factory for hand holds, hoisting rope and for tying into the brickwork with metal straps.

They came from a building in Nashville that the seller said the fellow he bought them from allegedly said was demolished 50 years ago. While the seller thought they date to the “1800s” in fact they more likely date to the teens, to maybe 1920′s when polychrome terra cotta was widely used.
The seller had no idea what they were made of and called them “reconstituted stone,” no idea where that came from! These are terra cotta with two colors of fired-on ceramic glaze. The lion mask was given a sort of yellowish-green glaze and the background that would show was given a white glaze.

I seriously doubt the building was demolished 50 years ago, the lions were too clean and in good shape to have been sitting in someone’s back yard or garden for 50 years, I’d say it was a more recent tear-down of a hotel or apartment building.

The two lions were $377, 92# each and I had them shipped via the UPS store double boxed. The UPS charges ran around $80 a box since they were 105# each, and the packing charges took the total bill to $223. Kudos to Mike at the UPSStore in Nashville for a great packing job!

As of this writing the Folies Bergere panel is done and drying carefully, casts should be available around the first of August, so it will be exciting to see how they turn out.

Taking a break from modelling for a bit as I’ve used up the last of the 1,000# I had on hand.

For classical music lovers, take a look at this video, very nice trumpet and organ performance of a John Stanley work;