Grotesque Keystone Nr 285 Kiln Fired Terracotta The keystone that provided the original to make the mold from came from 705 -707 East 5th Street, Manhattan, pictured below in 1975; The original ca 1905 keystone was made from white terracotta and just the grotesque mask upper half was used; Like the original, my red terracotta is hand-pressed and kiln fired, these can be used outdoors in the garden or built into a brick or stone wall. The entire block of buildings on East 5th Street was demolished in the 1980s. To purchase one of my kiln fired keystones; Grotesque Keystone Nr 285 Kiln Fired Terracotta Copyright © 2020 Randall’s…
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Sculpture of the week (December 31st, 2019)
Art Deco Chanin Building Panel D8 “Activity” To purchase an interior cast of this; Art Deco Chanin Building Panel D8 “Activity” HISTORY of the building The 56 story tall Chanin Building is a brick and terra-cotta skyscraper located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue, in Manhattan. Built by Irwin S. Chanin in 1929 It was designed by Sloan & Robertson in the Art Deco style, with the assistance of Chanin’s own architect Jacques Delamarre, and it incorporates architectural sculpture by noted sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan. In the lobbies, eight bronze reliefs designed by Rene Paul Chambellan are inset in the walls above ornate…
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Sculpture of the week (December 24th, 2019)
Art Deco Chanin Building Panel D9 “Endurance” To purchase an interior cast of this sculpture; Art Deco Chanin Building Panel D9 “Endurance” HISTORY of the building The 56 story tall Chanin Building is a brick and terra-cotta skyscraper located at 122 East 42nd Street, at the corner of Lexington Avenue, in Manhattan. Built by Irwin S. Chanin in 1929 It was designed by Sloan & Robertson in the Art Deco style, with the assistance of Chanin’s own architect Jacques Delamarre, and it incorporates architectural sculpture by noted sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan. In the lobbies, eight bronze reliefs designed by Rene Paul Chambellan are inset in the walls…
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Sculpture of the week (December 3rd, 2019)
This attractive repeating Art Deco design originally was made in individual nickel plated bronze pieces. The pieces when bolted together formed a repeating motiff lintel across the top of the interior entrance doorway of the Women’s House of Detention. The Jail was located at 6th Ave behind the present day Jefferson Market Public Library which was originally a courthouse. The New York Women’s House of Detention is believed to have been the world’s only art deco prison. It was designed by Sloan and Robertson in 1931 and opened to the public with a luncheon on March 29, 1932. The courthouse, and jail, the latter which was subsequently opened in 1934…
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Artifact of the month (December, 2019)
Otis elevator call button The unassuming and dimunitive little Otis elevator call button was a simple but artistic design used for many years by Otis elevator Co., with their laurel wreath encircling their name emblazoned over a globe logo, and surrounded by a classical egg & dart molding. This particular artifact has only one button- the “up” button as it was originally located in the basement, not only was it located in a lowly, damp basement, but that basement happened to be the one that was under the 1867 Broadway Central Hotel (BCH) once located on several lots fronting 150 feet of Broadway with the main entrance at 673 Broadway,…
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Sculpture of the week (November 19th, 2019)
Sullivanesque panel, after historic artifacts once on the James W Scoville building, Chicago. I am excited to offer this interesting Sullivanesque 1884 design after the artifacts that were connected to Adler & Sullivan, George Elmslie, Kristian Schneider, and once installed on the James W Scoville building in Chicago. Those involved in creating the original 1884 Chicago design are said to have included; Dankmar Adler Louis Sullivan George Grant Elmslie Kristian Schneider Significance: The James W. Scoville factory building, designed by Adler & Sullivan contains three different designs belonging to the transitional period (1880 and 1890) of Louis Sullivan’s architectural ornament. This structure was the best and most ornamental of all…
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Sculpture of the week
In addition to the new “Artifact of the month” feature in which I detail the story, history and more of each architectural artifact in my personal collection, I decided to start a new “Sculpture of the week” feature which will showcase one of my sculptures each week. Inspired by a terra cotta frieze on the historic Nortown Theater, Chicago, Illinois, ~ I present ~ Art Deco Nortown Spandrel Panel Nr D5 Nortown theater Art Deco D7 While the Nortown theater is long gone, you will be able to enjoy the lovely design in your home. Fans of Art Deco may have seen the Nortown theater in Chicago, the…
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Washington Irving school Sullivanesque Pier Capital
Hope to finally finish this Sullivanesque pier capital to-morrow, the clay is getting pretty firm despite being covered with plastic and spritzed with water, so it needs to be finished now. It’s amazing how much time this design takes, probably twice what other models I’ve done have taken, there’s a lot of detail packed in on the surface! I still have 5 of the 8 “squares” along the sides- the 4 on the right and the bottom left one to finish refining and cleaning up and then it’s done. Now that the model is done it is drying out. There is an 11 minute long timelapse video showing the…
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Hand-pressed red terracotta architectural leaf block
Now I have the first hand-pressed red terracotta architectural leaf blocks done and ready to start drying, this will shrink somewhat and I have not priced these yet, but pretty soon I will know the exact size it will wind up, and a price determined. These would be very nice for accents or even in a row as a frieze band, they will be kiln fired, so they can be embedded into a brick or stone wall, or otherwise used outdoors. A timelapse video showing how these are made;
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Leaf block mold for hand-pressed red terracotta
I decided to make a mold of one of these ca 1880 leaf blocks that came from a frieze band on a mansion in Newark NJ that was demolished. It’s a nice little design and it will be quick and easy to make these in red terracotta like the original. Now it will have to dry out for a couple of weeks before I can use it. This is exactly what they used in ca 1880 to make the originals, though it was about 5-10% larger. The design could be a styled boxelder tree leaf, there’s not a lot of trees that have leaves like the terracotta block has,…