from a Public School in
New York City,
~ I present ~
PS 168 Griffin head Nr 168 head
Cast by Randall
The head shown 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
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.
Note that the terracotta is ONLY available in brick red and ONLY on a limited selection- the designs in the TERRACOTTA category, not to be confused with the red terracotta FINISH! which is on cast-stone only.
Prices include shipping and are shown on each sculpture on the CART PAGES.
I use FEDEX ground service for all shipments in the lower 48 states. I do not ship outside the USA.
If you are looking for something for the garden or to build into a wall, I offer a growing number of hand-pressed, kiln fired red terracotta works. for many reasons, concrete is no longer available.
All of my interior sculptures have a heavy wire embedded on the back to hang them on the wall.
These hand sculpted models are created from scratch by Randall in water based clay, and typically take an average of 20-30 hours to set up, layout and sculpt each master model.
When the clay master models are finished, they are permanently captured with silicone mold compounds which can pick up even a fingerprint and faithfully transfer it to a cast made in it. From the molds, interior cast-stone as well as a growing number of kiln fired terracotta sculptures are made available for clients to purchase.
Existing savaged pieces are limited to what happens to be for sale at high prices, often damaged, rarely found in pairs and being typically large in scale (meant to be seen from the street from 5 floors below) they are difficult to display in today's smaller homes and apartments. Instead of making molds of these pieces, Randall creates new original models based on authentic 19th century and early 20th century Victorian, Art Deco and Louis Sullivan style architectural sculptures. While I do have a small number of older designs directly molded from antique pieces, these are being phased out over time as I create my own original models.
By no means! keep in mind- your walls weigh thousands of pounds and support the roof. HOWEVER- do not use plastic or self adhesive picture hangars of any kind, or try to simply put a screw into the thin sheetrock-these will not hold, and are not designed to.
Install your mounting hooks or other hangars into the solid wood STUD inside the wall, these are spaced 16" apart. You should use an anchor rated to hold at least twice the shipping weight of the sculpture.
To show what a sheetrock wall can hold, here is a photo of two shelves I installed on my bedroom wall for original sculptures that I couldn't mount any other way, the brackets are screwed into the wall studs with 3" screws. The weight for the stone and terra-cotta shown-the top shelf; 175# and 125# for the lower shelf- 300# total.
SCULPTURE SALES * BLOG * ARTIST STATEMENT * STUDIO VIEWS
NYC TENEMENT HISTORY * SCULPTURE COMMISSIONS * CLIENT PHOTOS
To purchase, click BUY NOW
Prices Revised Dec 24th, 2013
