Roman Bronze Works

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Roman Bronze Works
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Roman Bronze Works

New York, 1897-1988
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BiographyRoman Bronze Works in New York City, established in 1897 by Ricardo Bertelli, was the pre-eminent bronze foundry in the United States during the age of Beaux-Arts style sculpture and continued to cast modernist sculptures. Its foundry, long a sub-contractor to Louis Comfort Tiffany's Tiffany Studios, moved to Tiffany's Corona, New York, red brick factory in 1927 [1]. Roman Bronze Works was the first American foundry to specialize in the lost-wax casting method [2]. Its mold makers, casters, chasers and finishers, and patinaters worked directly with sculptors whose plaster and terra cotta models provided the originals.
Sculptors trusted Roman Bronze Works to accurately scale down finished works for editions of collectors' bronzes. Monuments by Daniel Chester French and Augustus Saint-Gaudens could 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 [3].
Roman Bronze Works, which made Tiffany's bronze accessories and lamp bases, moved to Tiffany's Corona facility in 1927. Roman Bronze Works was purchased in 1946 by Salvatore Schiavo, whose father had been working 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 [4].
After the foundry closed, an auction was staged of original plaster models of major works by American artists, Frederic Remington, Daniel Chester French, Charles Russell, Bessie Potter Vonnoh and Anna Hyatt Huntington, in New York, 17 September 1988 [5]. Some of the molds were moved to warehouse space in Copiague, New York, under the aegis of American Art Restoration, Inc. [6]. Fortunately, the business archives were preserved and are now at the Amon Carter Museum Library, Fort Worth, Texas [7].
The monograph devoted to Roman Bronze Works, based on the firm's ledgers and archival photographs at the Amon Carter Museum, is Lucy D. Rosenfeld, A Century of American Sculpture The Roman Bronze Works Foundry 2002.

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