Architectural Sculptures

Interestingly enough I found a web site with my old NYC fire alarm box shown on it “restored” with a candy-ass glossy red paint job, this should be an example of what NOT to do to a 100 year old antique, antiques are meant to look like antiques, not plastic reproductions, no fire alarm box ever placed on the street had such a paint job or polished brass- they were simply painted a medium semi gloss or flat red.

Here’s a couple of pics of it in my loft in 1980

It appears now on;

http://www.vintagevending.com/fire-department-ny-call-box/

Some thoughts after reading the other comments there:

Gamewell fire Alarm boxes come up on ebay all the time in considerable numbers, the NYC system was custom designed and one-of-a-kind, the city did not use Gamewell.
The city foolishly stripped out most of the guts and doors around 1975 and piled the whole bunch on one of the Hudson river piers near Spring street and then had a sealed bid auction. Most of the mechanical guts sold for less than $10-$15 and there was at least 1-2 dump trucks full.
The doors were probably scrapped.
That was when they installed the new police/fire intercom system.

Intact freestanding posts like this one are extremely rare, they date to 1915 and almost all were retro fitted with the intercoms and the doors destroyed.
This particular post came from Brooklyn and it weighs more than “400 pounds” as the article indicated, it weighed 900# and is in two sections.

Re: “restoring” boxes found on ebay etc, in a word- DONT! dont make the mistake of stripping and repainting antiques, it makes them look like plastic reproduction boxes made in China. painting one of these like a sports car is NOT “restoring” anything, it’s destroying decades of impossible to replicate patina and age, even coin collectors will tell you NEVER to clean/polish old coins- the largest part of their value is exactly BECAUSE they are in an original state of aged patina.
By all means- CLEAN the box, carefully remove rust and lubricate where needed, replace broken or missing glass with real glass not plexiglass! The round glass with the hole in it covering the mechanism is NOT difficult to make, plexiglass doesnt belong in an antique!
Nor does bondo belong on an antique either…

As far as how much they sell for on Ebay, expect to pay at least $500 for a Gamewell box, and for shipping costs- expect the cast-iron boxes to weigh about 70#.
Most of the boxes on ebay now sold are the newer aluminum models from post 1940′s when cast-iron was phased out, but there are many thousands of the cast iron boxes around.

Also expect that the seller may or may not know HOW to pack to ship something like this, and that there’s a good chance it will not be packed well. It can be severely damaged the first time UPS drops the box.
Antique Cast iron is 99% not weldable… dont even try it.

There are books on fire alarm boxes with pictures and price guides, I wont name the author who was selling part of his collection on ebay and had a box I wanted which happened to be pictured in his book- he wanted $500 + ship which was considerably more for the box than his (then) just published book said the price value of this was- $350-$400 ! When I asked if he would ship it free at that (much higher) price he wouldn’t even come down that estimated $35, so I told him he could keep it, and found another identical box for less.

One last mistake to detail here- that is converting the gamewell boxes into such things like table LAMPS, in a word- DONT!
Like a vintage Model T destroyed to make a “hotrod,” ruining an antique to make it into a frivolous something it never was meant to be is both foolish, and morally criminal.
If you want a table lamp BUY a table lamp, don’t destroy a valuable antique for a novelty whose “coolness” and value will fade away in short order.

I happened to find this nice metal statue and bought it, it’s of an Akita and made in Japan around 1950, there’s unfortunately no maker’s marks or anything on it.

As the mold seams can be seen clearly, it’s a good visual lesson on how complex it is to make a sculpture like this
The head was cast seperately in a 3 piece mold and soldered on, while the body required a 6 piece mold to cast it. So the original mold had to be carefully made in 9 pieces fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle.
I would imagine in the 50′s these sold for just a few dollars, but the modelling details on the surface are very good.

I recently bought a DVD of the new “Hachiko: A dog’s tale” movie, it’s a very moving must-see film and real life story. I won’t go into all the background story and history- they are plastered all over the web seemingly on every blog, forum and web site, but I will say to get the DVD it’s extraordinarily good and based on the real story from the 1920′s but set in Woonsocket Mass instead of Japan where it happened.

As I got more involved with researching the movie, and the story which I knew from having heard it before, I went looking for photos of the bronze statue that was erected of the dog by the train station in Shibuya. Turned out the original bronze cast in 1934 and installed, was melted down during WW2 for scrap to make bullets…

A few years later a committee commissioned an artist to recreate the bronze, the artist was the original late sculptor’s son and the new bronze was installed on the original stone pedistal in 1948.
Here’s what the lifesized Hatchi bronze in Japan looks like;

My first thought upon seeing the many photos of the bronze was, I didn’t like it, and with all due respect to the sculptor (who is now in his 90s) I thought it looked amateurish, and too “impressionistic” in style for my tastes. Of course impressionist work tends to look amateurish to me anyway so it’s not a negative reflection on this fine work that I personally happen to dislike it’s style, the eyes and face and the surface modelling. Many many people around the globe love and adore it and I’m happy the sculpture brings the story out about the dog.

I read a story about a school who wanted to “cash in” on the popularity of this due to the movie, and they paid $1,950 for a bronze copy on ebay. In the article the staffer who spent the $1,950 of school funds on the statue said gleefully that it was an exact replica of the one in Japan and he was so thrilled to have this on display to promote with.

So in about two minutes I found this so called “exact replica” on ebay, and needless to say it was absolutely horrible and in no way other than the basic shape was it a “replica.”
The ad said it is 75#, 75 pounds?? for a life sized dog sculpture?? this must have been cast literally paper thin, and with a little research I found another bronze they were offering on their web site that I know for a fact is made by a foundry in SINGAPOR.
A fellow sculptor who lives in Singapor once mentioned the foundry situation there, turns out most everyone who needs bronzes cast uses one foundry in particular and this is all they do- cast bronze into your molds that you bring in.
They use scrap and salvaged metal, and I suspect it’s mostly cheap brass salvaged plumbing and fixtures melted down, than bronze.
Real bronze is very very expensive since it is made with two volatile metals which fluctuate daily like silver and gold do; copper and tin.

Brass is much cheaper, since the tin portion is replaced with cheap zinc, the metal long used to galvanize steel. Tin on the commodities exchange is listed at $14 a pound (April 2011) while zinc is shown at $1.05.
Since laymen can rarely tell the difference, the cost savings using cheap brass v/s bronze is significant!

The bronze on ebay was just pathethic, it looked like a 2nd generation amateurish copy of an already amateurish sculpture, that’s how bad it looked. The surface modelling looked like carpet texture, I just cant get over people producing CRAP like this and calling it art, I don’t care if it’s $1,950 or $250- get some modelling skills and do it RIGHT, or hire someone who can! Don’t put out obvious CRAP under the guise of “modernism” or “impressionist” style and call it art.

So now I get to the crux of the purpose of this particular post now that I have the story covered.
After the watching the movie (twice) and seeing the photos etc etc. I’m getting somewhat motivated into wanting to improve on this depiction of Hachi, with a model done in a more traditional Victorian-turn-of-the-century era style which is what I feel should have been done originally.

An excellent example of a Victorian-turn-of-the-century style bronze is the depiction of “Balto” in Central Park by Frederick George Richard Roth, 1925, a stunning photo showing the warm patina and details is 2nd from the bottom;

photos

Compare these two head studies, the Hachiko bronze in Japan with the Balto bronze in NYC both created in the same decade and by totally different artists, and of different ages. Roth lived from 1872-1944, so when he modelled Balto he was 53, the sculptor of Hachiko is in his 90′s now, making him roughly around 20 years of age in 1934 when he modelled the dog.

There is a world of difference in both style, technique and all else, the Balto sculpture looks alive and vibrant, you can feel the tension and this is the kind of high quality work that came out of the best artists in the 19th century till before the 1930′s when modernism came into play.

So I will be mulling the idea over, should I decide to make such a model it would be in the style of the Balto bronze.

I finished and installed one of these in my front parlor, while this is not the easiest position to install something like this, for me it was not difficult.
The sculpture has a wire bar embedded in the top back of it to normally hang it on the wall. So I took a small angle iron and bent it in such a way- “U” shaped- that when the angle iron was installed with a screw into the wood beam cover, the open end of the “U” shape faced out from the wall and down 1/2″ so the wire bar on the sculpture could slide over and onto that. This supports the deeper end of the sculpture by the wall.

Next, I had pre-drilled two holes thru the sculpture near the smaller end in a mostly hidden “pocket” area on each side of the scroll.

I used two 6″ long screws to secure it then, and now it’s up there permanently.

One has to be sure when using screws like this, not to tighten them too much! not much more than finger tight because torquing a screw down places hundreds of pounds of concentrated pressure which can crack the cast stone.
Just snug enough to prevent rattling is all that’s necessary.

This sculpture can be used in this position as a modillion, or as a wall hanging or table sculpture, probably bookends would work nicely as well.

For more photos and the purchase page which is being worked on see;

SALES PAGE

Casts are available now for $72 Plus shipping.

No one likes to raise prices, and I haven’t for probably 3 years or more on many items, meanwhile shipping charges have increased every January. Now that I’ve run almost completely through the 40 bags (2 tons) worth of casting material I purchased 2 years ago at a cost of $2400, the cost and the delivery charges have also increased dramatically since to close to $3,000 for the next time I order which is going to be very shortly.

Unfortunately this all means that prices will increase roughly 15% across the board, a $69 item is now $79.

On shipping, I have to pay a weekly invoiced account service fee of $8 regardless of whether I ship that week or not, I decided to close my FedEx invoice account since even with the “discount” for shipping over $50 in transportation charges in a given week the service fee is $6.50 a week, not free as it was.
There is a pickup charge of $8 whether I ship one box or fifty that pickup, obviously if I have several boxes shipping at once, the cost per client’s shipment is split over than number. Shipping a single box to one client then costs me $8 for the pickup plus the shipping charges.

Obviously some changes and increases in shipping charges across the board are required, because if I’m charging $23 to ship an item flat-rate, and it happens to be going to California instead of closer, the actual cost may in fact be closer to $30 PLUS that $8 pickup fee. This doesn’t even consider the costs for boxes, packing materials, printing ink etc. It should be obvious then that I have been subsidizing every shipment to the tune of something averaging 50% over the real cost being charged.

That has to change to better reflect the actual costs to safely and efficiently get your sculpture to you.

Changing these values in the web store’s Paypal codes is a major headache that has to be done in PayPal one item at a time followed by changing every item’s web page. Prices stated in the store when updated on each item will clearly show this.
I will be starting with the larger items and the Picaud D4 panel first and working my way through.
Thanks for the understanding.

The mold is finished on this and the first cast made to check it, it will be added to the store next.

This is a cast from circa 1915 era French wood carving, while I normally no longer reproduce antiques pieces, I bought a pair of the carvings a few years ago and wanted to make casts from them to have 4 plaster casts for my ceiling.
Now that I have some materials left over to do so, I will be making the mold of this now so I can have my 4 casts.

As I will have the design available, I added this to my line of cast sculptures, casts are available now for $72 Plus shipping.

http://www.urbansculptures.com/store/400.php

I have never seen corbels like these, they could have been used around an interior doorway, on a fireplace, or as modillions in a series under a balcony. They are made of a softwood and extremely detailed carving all over. It was stated they came from France with a container of other antiques the store had purchased, and were thought to be “1800s,” but in looking them over carefully I estimate they were made probably around 1910 to 1915 maybe, they are old, they just don’t seem really old as in 1830′s or something.
They were primed with a red primer and painted and then a wipe on stain appeared to have been applied to give then a darker wood color. They had not been repainted later, which again suggests my dating of them to 1915 is closer to reality.

Since I have a well done video by “Nature” on E.T. Seton,
along with some writings by him, and having always had an interest in wild wolves, I was researching him a bit and noticed some antique traps for sale so I bought some for my collection.
Turns out many are pretty warm collector’s items, with prices on some fetching several hundred dollars.

One I bought has stamped on it that it was “property of the United States” which indicates it was one of many used by the US Govt in it’s misguided, criminal, wolf extermination programs.
Here’s a photo of one of them;

For those who don’t know what these are or how they work, these are steel leg-hold traps, this one is in the already activated position, the 2 springs exert substantial force on the 2 hoop shaped steel jaws which are normally set down flat horizontal with the ground.
Upon the animal’s paw contacting that pan in the center, the release lever releases the 2 hoops which then slam shut on the animal’s paw. Some of these have spiked teeth, more often than not the slamming force breaks bones, and a number of animals so trapped will wring or bite their paw off to escape.

The chain goes to that spiked anchor-like “drag” which leaves marks on the ground as the animal tries to escape, so they can be hunted down and killed.

As the sole purpose of these is to trap and torture an animal all for a fur or to eliminate competition for the livestock industry, these are probably the most evil and sinister devices made. I say “made” in the present tense rather than the past tense of “were made” because amazing as it seems, these torture devices are STILL MADE AND SOLD today.
If that isn’t amazing enough, here’s another fact- the company who made these; Newhouse, Oneida NY… sold around 400,000 a YEAR during the heyday around the 1900′s, they sold out around 1925 to focus on their other growing business- if the “Oneida” portion of the name didn’t sound familiar, they make Oneida tableware for your diningroom.
Now you know, the company who brings you fine dining got it’s start in the 1850′s by manufacturing animal torture devices, which sometime after they sold the animal trap line in the 20′s they re-acquired and sell under the Newhouse-Victor name, the one who makes the Victor mouse and rat traps.

Of course their new animal trap web site doesn’t refer to these as “traps” any more, in fact, their page now refers to these evil things from hell as…

“Wildlife management devices”

Sounds so much nicer than animal TORTURE and killing device doesn’t it?

Now you know, and now you know which company to not buy your next set of silverware or related dinnerware from;

http://www.oneida.com/

http://www.oneidavictor.com/

Watch the whole film on Seton and the wolves here for free:

LOBO: The wolf that changed America

It’s guaranteed to be a tear jerker and motivator, there is however one innacuracy in the film which involves Seton’s detailed and graphic description of what they did to one of the wolves they finally trapped, the film watered it down to her being shot with a gun which you don’t see of course, it’s PBS… when in reality according to Seton’s own book- they threw 2 ropes around her neck and tore her in half using 2 horses and then used this for bait for her mate “lobo.” An astoundingly brutal and vicious treatment that appeared to have happened many times back in the 1890′s.

Thankfully Seton did a 180 turnabout after this and became a champion for saving wolves.

I have a client who wanted a different lion I have, the large cornice lion from the YMCA building in NJ, but the mold is in pretty poor shape and I don’t plan to replace it any time soon since it was never much of a seller.

So I sent a photo of this other lion I have which is slightly smaller, and a nicer face, and he would like 2 cast in concrete.

I am working now on making the mold for this

He is about 14″ square.

I’m thinking of at least starting a mold or two of this 5 piece eagle model I made two years ago. It is after one of the ceramic plaques found in the Astor, 14th, 23rd and 33rd street subway stations in Manhattan. This one depicts the 14th street version, they are the same exacept for the numerals on the shield.

The model was made in pieces like the originals were so as to enable making different molds of this for casting interior stone, and for pressing terra cotta into.
The cast-stone and the ceramic will require rubber molds to start with, a mold of each piece so plaster molds can be made from each piece. The model’s 5 pieces can be assembled and a mold of the whole assembly can be made for casting it in one piece.
I have just enough mold rubber left over to make one or two molds for now.

The original ceramics in the subway are polychromed, in other words they are glazed in multiple colors.

Now that the model is dry I hoisted it down to a dolly on the floor.

Now Ive begin the supporting shell for this, it will be in several pieces, each piece acts as a relief for various undercuts and opposing angled surfaces.
Multiple smaller pieces make it easier to take apart too.
Here’s a successive series showing how it’s made, with the last photo removing the rubber portion from the model;