STATUARY IN CONCRETE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10060, 30 January 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

STATUARY IN CONCRETE.

Statuary cast from moulds has been made from the earliest days of art, and Greek and bronzes are • among the most precious treasures bequeathed to us by antiquity. But bronze is a costly material and less expensive metals or alloys are occasionally used as a substitute, notably lead or pewter. The celebrated statue of King George that was pulled down at Bowling Green, in New York City, by the Revolutionary patriots, was of lead, a material that served the spoilers well in the form of bullets. Recently, large ornamental figures have been cast in cement or in compounds containing or resembling it, but usually for temporary purposes. Perhaps the first use of concrete for permanent figures of artisticvalue is seen in the four huge lions cast recently in Washington, D.C., to guard the entrances to the new bridge over Rock Creek Gorge at Connecticut Avenue. Says Engineering News (New York, November 19): —"The moulding of large and intricate figures in concrete is a comparatively recent process, and even now is in the hands of a few specialists, but the highly artistic effects that eorae of these gentlemen have been able to produce makes it apparent that there is a wide field for this work. . . . The full size lion rests on a pedestal (shown in the half-tone), is about 9ft high, and is of solid concrete. In each lion there is the following reinforcement: One :]-incli pipe in each fore-leg, one round rod in the curled-lip tail, and iin round rod placed in a horizontal plane about the level of the mouth so as to reinforce the head. Each of the figures was cast in place on its pedestal, two plaster moulds being used for the four figures. . . These moulds consisted of about 150 pieces, varying from 9 to 24 .inches in thickness, interlocking so as to form strong backing when set up, and, in the longer pieces, reinforced with lin. iron pipe and wooden strips. ... In the casting the mould was first set up entirely around the figure for a height cl 2ft. 6in., then the inside of the joints carefully jointed up with plaster-oit'-paris, and finally the moulding surface was covered with two coats of shellac to prevent adhesion of the cement to the mould. Inside of the figures a 1 rough" form was placed about 5 inches ' from the face forms, so that a surface : coating could first be cast, afterwards i to be Dacked up by a central filling. Ac- < cordingly this surface layer was placed 1 in 8 inches thicknesses,' worked- -well in 1 by the hands and then successively ram- i med ; first, with small iron rammers about f 2 inches in diameter, so as to occupy about- t two-thirds of the original space; second, t with wooden mallets, and third, with c sandbag rammers (about a of' sand: e to a bag) until an - impression could; no h longer be made with the hand:.. .The r

L mould was kept in place two clays. After the removal the concrete lions were kept wet for three weeks and on the warmer days they were covered 'with wet bags. Upon the removal of the mould the work Wiis found to be excellent. After three weeks the carving or tooling of the lions was begun. This carving or tooling consisted largely of tootli-chiselling the surface so as to remove the plasfcer-of-paris, which appeared as flour over a small portion of the two lions, to produce a uniform appearance, to obliterate the few • marks, to accentuate to a slight extent the detail and' to bring out a small amount • of undercut work which could bo be brought out this? way than by moulding. It took about one week to complete each lion, from the assembling of the moulds to the finishing tooling. The completed ihimcG are remarkably good, only a few defects being found on the work. *