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Roman Bronze Works

Roman Bronze Works, now operated as Roman Bronze Studios, is a bronze foundry in New York City. Established in 1897 by Riccardo Bertelli, it was the first American foundry to specialize in the lost-wax casting method,[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abrc/hd_abrc.htm Metropolitan Museum of Art: American bronze casting] and was the country's pre-eminent art foundry during the American Renaissance (ca. 1876–1917).{{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

History

Bertelli was a chemical engineer from Genoa who combined his skill in chemistry with his interest in art in starting a foundry.{{cite book | title=Icons of the West: Frederic Remington's Sculpture | author=Greenbaum, Michael D. | year=1996 | location=Frederic Remington Museum of Art | pages=220 | isbn=0965105008}} The foundry trademarked its namesake, Roman Bronze Works in 1900.{{cite book | title=Roman Bronze Works: An Important Grouping of Plasters and Bronzes from America's Foremost Foundry | publisher=Guernsey's | year=1988 | pages=10}} In 1908, the foundry built a home and studio for sculptor Harry Merwin Shrady at White Plains, New York. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as the Leo Friedlander Studio.{{NRISref|version=2009a}}

Long a sub-contractor to Louis Comfort Tiffany's Tiffany Studios, the foundry moved in 1927 to Tiffany's red brick factory in Corona, Queens, New York.{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEFDD173CF934A15751C1A961948260 |first=Christopher |last=Gray |title=Streetscapes: Tiffany Studios; In Queens, a Remembrance of a Luminous Legend |work=The New York Times |date=27 December 1987 |access-date=25 September 2008}} The General Bronze Corporation purchased the Roman Bronze Works in 1928.{{cite news |title=BRONZE CORPORATION BUYS TIFFANY STUDIOS; John Polachek Again in Control of Metal Working Plant Which He Once Managed. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/01/31/issue.html |access-date=29 December 2023 |agency=The New York Times |issue=Business & Finance |publisher=The New York Times Publishing |date=31 January 1928}}{{cite news |last1=Erler |first1=Diana |title=Creating a New Bronze Age |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle/55230082/ |access-date=28 December 2023 |agency=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |date=19 August 1928 |pages=75}} This ownership lasted for twenty years, up until 1948,{{cite news |title=BRONZE CORPORATION BUYS TIFFANY STUDIOS; John Polachek Again in Control of Metal Working Plant Which He Once Managed. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/01/31/issue.html |access-date=29 December 2023 |agency=The New York Times |issue=Business & Finance |publisher=The New York Times Publishing |date=31 January 1928}}{{cite book |last1=Rosenfeld |first1=Lucy |title=A Century of American Sculpture: The Roman Bronze Works Foundry |date=2002 |publisher=Schiffer Publishing |isbn=9780764315190 |pages=11 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aB43AQAAIAAJ&q=subsidiary%20of%20general%20bronze%20corporation}} during which it produced some of its finest bronze artworks from sculptors such as Paul Manship and Rene Chambellan to Lee Lawrie.{{cite web |last1=General Bronze Corporation |title=The General Bronze Corporation and Rene Paul Chambellan |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nnc2.ark:/13960/s258s75zhfq&seq=8 |website=Internet Archive, Columbia University |publisher=General Bronze Corporation |access-date=17 December 2023 |year=1946}}

The foundry's mold makers, casters, chasers and finishers, and patinaters cast sculptures from plaster and terra cotta models provided by sculptors. They also scaled down monumental and other finished works for editions of collectors' bronzes, allowing works by Daniel Chester French, Augustus LukemanAmerican Archives, Smithsonian and Augustus Saint-Gaudens to ornament a private library or drawing room. From 1898, Frederic Remington worked exclusively with Roman Bronze Works, as did Charles M. Russell. Remington bronzes were being cast by Roman Bronze Works as late as the 1980s.Rita Reif. Roman Bronze Works was purchased in 1946 by Salvatore Schiavo, whose father had worked at the foundry since 1902. His nephew, Philip J. Schiavo, the grandson of the first Schiavo, was the president of the foundry until its closing.

The Heisman Trophy was originally made by Dieges & Clust in New York (and later Providence, Rhode Island) from its inception in 1935 until 1980, when Dieges and Clust was sold to Herff Jones.{{citation needed|date=August 2012}} However, for a time until at least 2008, the Roman Bronze Works cast the Heisman Trophy statues awarded annually to the best college football player and his university.{{cite news |title= Winning One Heisman Is Tough Enough, And Tebow Has His

|first= Joey|last=Johnston |newspaper= Tampa Tribune |date= December 14, 2008 }}

After the foundry closed, original plaster models of major works by American artists Frederic Remington, Daniel Chester French, Charles Russell, Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Anna Hyatt Huntington were auctioned off in New York on September 17, 1988.{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6D61E3DF935A2575AC0A96E948260 |first=Rita |last=Reif |title=Auctions |work=The New York Times |date=16 September 1988 |access-date=25 September 2008}} Some of the molds were moved to warehouses in Copiague, New York, under the aegis of American Art Restoration, Inc.[http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=1640 Sculpture.net dialogue]

The business archives were preserved and are now at the Amon Carter Museum Library in Fort Worth, Texas.[http://www.cartermuseum.org/library/archives Amon Carter Museum Archives] In 2002, Schiffer Publishing released a book about Roman Bronze Works, A Century of American Sculpture; The Roman Bronze Works Foundry, written by Lucy D. Rosenfeld and based on the firm's ledgers and archival photographs at the museum.

Brian Ramnarine, who worked at Roman Bronze Works and opened his foundry in Queens (Long Island City) NY under the name Empire Bronze Art Foundry, was charged in Manhattan Federal Court in November 2012 with an $11 million scheme to sell an unauthorized casting of a work by Jasper Johns.{{cite web|last=U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York|title=Queens Foundry Owner Charged in Manhattan Federal Court with $11 Million Scheme to Sell Fake Jasper Johns Sculpture|url=https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2012/queens-foundry-owner-charged-in-manhattan-federal-court-with-11-million-scheme-to-sell-fake-jasper-johns-sculpture|publisher=US Dept. of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation|accessdate=April 25, 2013}}{{cite web|last=Cohen|first=Patricia|title=Authorities Cast Queens Foundry Owner as Forger|url=http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/authorities-cast-queens-foundry-owner-as-forger/|work=New York Times|date=15 November 2012|accessdate=April 25, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Gearty|first=Robert|title=Queens man tried to sell fake Jasper Johns sculpture for $11 million: prosecutors|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-sell-fake-jasper-johns-sculpture-cops-article-1.1203027|accessdate=April 25, 2013|newspaper=New York Daily News|date=Nov 15, 2012 }} He was arraigned in October 2002 on charges of grand larceny, falsifying business records, scheme to defraud and criminal simulation. In February 2003 he pleaded guilty to making unauthorized copies of sculptures, agreeing to pay $100,000 in restitution.{{cite web|last=Lee|first=Tien-Shun|date=March 6, 2003|title=LIC sculptor pleads guilty to forging original pieces|url=http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2003/10/20030306-archive167.html|work=Times Ledger|accessdate=April 25, 2013}}

Notable works

Artists

Artists who had works cast by the Roman Bronze Works include:{{Cite web|url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=14608S0785L29.1470&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!42~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!siartinventories&term=Roman+Bronze+Works%2C+founder.&index=AUTHOR|title=SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System}}

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Partnerships

Roman Bronze Works had significant partnerships with the following artists:

  • Frederic Remington- Although uncertain, Roman Bronze Works partnership with Frederic Remington is thought to have begun around 1901 with the creation of The Cheyenne. This marked a move from the sand process casts of the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company to the lost-wax casting method used by Roman Bronze Works.{{cite book | title=Cast and Recast: The sculpture of Frederic Remington | publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press | author=Shapiro, Michael Edward | year=1981 | location=Washington, D.C. | pages=127}} Remington and Bertelli had a close relationship as expressed in Remington's continual presence at the foundry. Remington was often called to examine new models and to retouch the designs when necessary. Roman Bronze Works continued to create works after his death. After his and his wife's death, surmoulages were created using both original bronzes and replicas.
  • Charles M. Russell
  • Tiffany Studios

Notes

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External links

{{Commons category}}

  • [http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/results/index.cfm?rows=10&q=&page=1&start=0&fq=name:%22Roman%20Bronze%20Works%22 Smithsonian Institution items cast by Roman Bronze Works]

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Category:Foundries in the United States

Category:American sculpture

Category:Manufacturing companies based in New York City

Category:American companies established in 1897

Category:Design companies established in 1897

Category:Corona, Queens