I purchased one of these cornice lions last week, it came from the 1915 annex of the Boatmans’ bank building, St Louis. 27″H 11″W 17″D, 130# The building was originally 7 stories high, but in 1920 they added 4 more floors on after removing the roof and cornice, and then either replacing the original cornice or re-installing it all. There were 69 lions that were scaled for a 7 story building, and when it was 11 stories they looked someone “small” scaled. The terracotta and the lions were made by the Winkle terracotta Company, St Louis Photo from 1883
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Architectural Artifact of the month (August 2019)
I thought I would start a new feature here, each month I will feature and detail one artifact from my collection. Artifact: Corinthian Capital Material: Cast iron Identification marks: J.L. Jackson New York (foundry) Dim’s h/w/d: 11” x 18-1/2” Weight: 40# The 1850 U. S. Census recorded James L. Jackson, Iron Foundry as having invested $32,000 in capital, and owning materials consisting of 1200 tons of pig iron and 500 tons of coal valued at a combined total of $24,600. The foundry employed an average of 95 workman and paid average monthly wages of $3700. The annual product consisted of 500 tons of “grate castings” worth $50,000 and 500 tons of…
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My book: The Gargoyler of Greenwich Village (update)
I am pleased to say I now have printing for the book arranged again and the quality of the printing is excellent as before. I tried an alternate printer that was a little less cost and as soon as I got the two samples I ordered I immediately regretted it, the photos were muddy and dark, the colors washed out and even the actual photos as printed were not as clear and were somewhat “hazy” as you can see in the photo below, the upper photo in each set is the alternate printer, the bottom was printed by Amazon/KDP, mind you the original Kodak print dates back to the 1970s…