from a former Public School at
104th Street 1st Ave, New York City,
~ I present ~
PS 168 Gargoyle Nr 169
Modelled by Randall
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.
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 will NOT be available in concrete.
Prices are no longer shown on each page due to the increasing number of pages plus their corresponding PayPal codes that I have to manually edit individually on two web sites every time I need to adjust for shipping costs or pricing.
As a general guideline- most of my sculptures are priced between $69 to $300, with many in the $100-$150 range. A price list is partially completed as a PDF file, some browsers will view PDF files directly with plug-ins, otherwise you may need to download the file:
PRICE LIST PDF Opens in a new browser window
Shipping is now included in the price, concrete however is priced more due to the additional weight, extra production handling and packing it involves.
Larger sculptures are packed into 1/2" thick plywood crates lined with rigid foam board, packing and shreaded newspaper or excelsior, glued, joint cleated and air nailed. You will need a #2 square drive bit or large phillips driver to open the lid. Smaller sculptures ship typically double boxed.
I use FEDEX ground service for all shipments in the lower 48 states. I do not ship outside the USA.
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 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 concrete 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.
If you are looking for something for the garden or to build into a wall, I offer concrete as a special order item which takes approx 3 weeks. Not all pieces are available in concrete.
All of my sculptures have a heavy wire embedded on the back to hang them on the wall.
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.
To order the Interior version use this button to order, prices plus shipping in the wood crate are shown in the PayPal cart.
