the zinc statuettes of cornelius and baker

TheandCarol

Slush casthen the ltable lamattractivincludinFrench st

Tfixtures;metal zi1853, thfor chanzinc castslush cadimenslower ctechniq

Oveslush-caettes thwell-knoMills’s ofound iseums. Other statuettesknown, given their qualitypremiere lighting compan

Carol Grissom is senior objectsMuseum Conservation Institute.

The author would like to thanous assistance as well as collectors DMattausch.

1 Denys Peter Myers, Gas Ligh1815–1910 (New York: Dover, 197and Company of Philadelphia,” AntiHorace Greeley et al., The Great Indurepr., New York: Garland, 1974), 30

B 2012 by The Henry FranciInc. All rights reserved. 0084-041

A

Zinc Statuettes of CorneliusBaker

Grissom

ting of zinc statuettes in the United States was pioneered around 1853 by the Philadelphia-based Cornelius and Baker,argest gas-fixture company in the country. The technique permitted three-dimensional castings suitable for chandeliers,ps, and mantel decorations to be quickly and inexpensively made. Imitation-bronze paint made the dull gray metal

were acquired by a number of important collections,’s early domestic “bronzes”—genre figures, copies of—

omndarehibndlyuction and practices. Subject matter and con-orpl

Sta

his, ananasfo

e. Statuettes after Clark Mills’s equestrian Andrew Jacksong the White House (in 1859). Outside of this, the companyatuettes, reductions of antique statues, and American subjects

HE PHILADELPHIA firm of Cornelius andBaker was renowned during the mid-nineteenth century for high-quality lightingits pioneering role in casting the then-novelnc, however, has been largely unnoticed.1 Bye company not only produced decorationsdeliers in zinc, but it used a new method foring that employed metal molds, known assting. By this means, it could make three-ional replicas more quickly and at muchost than by the predominant sand-castingue of the period.r the next two decades, the firm used thesting technique to produce the zinc statu-at are the subject of this article. The mostwn statuette, a 2-foot-high version of Clarkver-life-size Andrew Jackson on Horseback, isn the collections of major American mu-

Clost, aettesof exlius asuppprodtempettes’

Zinc

Thetypesderstzinc core is

are surprisingly littleand connection to they of the day.

only aftethe eighbecomeDuringrolling zroofingParis toceededwas offe

conservator at the Smithsonian’s

k Don Fennimore for his gener-aniel W.Mattausch and Nancy E.

ting in America: A Pictorial Survey,8); J. Kenneth Jones, “Corneliusques (December 1983): 1218–22;stries of the United States (ca. 1872;7–16.

s du Pont Winterthur Museum,6/2012/4601-0002$10.00

2 Thefact that zwin from zthat requiand conde

This content downloaded from 160.11ll use subject to University of Chicago Press Term

are little known.

pany records for Cornelius and Baker are, in consequence, well-provenienced statu-primary sources. Census records, catalogsitions at the Franklin Institute, two Corne-Sons trade catalogs, and business historiesfurther information about the company’s

ary paintings provide evidence of the statu-ace in the period’s art and taste.

tues in Europe and the United States

tory of zinc casting of works of art, theird techniques of fabrication are vital to un-

ding Cornelius and Baker’s contribution toting and contextualizing its statuettes. Zincund abundantly throughout the world, butr smelting was successful in Europe duringteenth century did the gray-colored zincone of the least expensive of all metals.2

the first decade of the nineteenth century,inc into sheets created a product useful for, which led to the distinctive gray skyline of
this day. At first, however, zinc supplies ex-demand to the point that in 1825, a prizered by a Prussian industry association for
late date for zinc smelting can be accounted for by theinc does not occur in nature as a metal and is difficult toinc ore. Themetal vaporizes at a lower temperature thanred to break down zinc ore, so that a method of capturingnsing the vapor has to be used to produce metal.

1.254.017 on September 18, 2018 10:24:26 AMs and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

new useone of tperaturand ironsolder.4

carriedDeco

state arNicholaartistic cinterestthat zincthe decomoniouThree pMoritz Gand Sonof life-sicompan

stlaranfigeBd,vertooios ithelicieato

3 Ern1918), 13

4 Zincand as hig

5 Sabiin Potsdamin PotsdamBerlin-Bration of thetably a Bu1819 andFerlier, “Ltober 200Bust of EnnMusée deshown inst“AnalyticalSmithsonithe Museu6, 2005.d’Angers’Angers, hathat they aund ZinkgArbeitshe(Munich:Statue proples are foarticle andumentaletechniqueLesgroupsde muséo

6 S. P.bewährter BAntiken Skgeführt in(Berlin: LZeichnungStier und AF. Kahle,Kirchen-GeHesse, StracPalmetten,

26

s of themetal.3 Sculpture would prove to behese uses. Zinc melts at a much lower tem-e than other statuary metals such as bronze, and it can be joined using ordinary lead-tinFabrication of statues in zinc could thus beout at far lower cost than for other metals.rations designed by the influential Prussianchitect Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the St.s Church in Potsdam are the first confirmedastings in zinc (1832; fig. 1).5 Schinkel wased in zinc as a new material, but the savingsstatues offered alsomade themattractive forration of buildings constructed for the parsi-s Prussian monarch Friedrich Wilhelm III.rincipal zinc foundries in the Berlin area—eiss, S. P. Devaranne, and Friedrich Kahle

cientpopuHebe,teenpedim

Inin sanfor egivenmadepressmoldcatecompone poblig

—subsequently produced large quantitiesze statues, many of which are illustrated iny catalogs.6 These included copies of an-

iron anend of tboriouspiece mfrom thAlternapatternsand insembledWoods’(1853),comprition, whmodel,hollow

est A. Smith, Zinc Industry (London: Longmans, Green,.melts at 419°C compared with 850–1,000°C for bronzeh as 1,539°C for iron.ne Hierath, “Künstlerischer Zinkguss im 19. Jahrhundert,” inMaterial undMöglichkeit: Zinkguss des 19. Jahrhunderts(Potsdam: Stiftung Preussische Schlösser und Gärtenndenburg, 1997), 4–30. It has been claimed that fabrica-earliest artworks made of zinc in the Western world, no-st of Louis XVIII displayed by Malpas at an exposition inworks by David d’Angers, occurred in France. Ophéliea sculpturemonumentale en zinc,”Histoire de l’art 57 (Oc-5): 93–104. However, while David d’Angers wrote that hisius Quirinus Visconti (1820), now in the collection of theBeaux Arts in Angers, was made of zinc, analysis hasead that it is composed principally of lead. Carol A. Grissom,Report forDavid d’Angers’sBust of Ennius Quirinus Visconti,”an Center for Materials Research and Education (nowm Conservation Institute), Report no. 5944, DecemberOther works said to be made of zinc, such as Davids Crucifixion (1820) on the façade of the Cathedral atve not been analyzed as far as is known, but it seems likelyre also made mostly of lead. Friedrich Kobler, “Über Zinkuss,” in Zinkguss, ed. Peter Mottner and Martin Mach,fte des Bayerischen Landesamtes für Denkmalpflege 98Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, 1999), 16–49.duction in zinc was not significant in France, but a few exam-und on the Petit Palais (1900) in Paris, featured in Ferlier’sa more extensive text: Ophélie Ferlier, “La sculpture mon-en zinc à la fin du XIXe siècle, les artistes, les fondeurs, less de mise en oeuvre, la conservation, à partir d’un exemple:sculptésde la couvertureduPetit Palais àParis,”Monographielogie de l’Ecole du Louvre, 2004.Devaranne, Zinkguss Arbeiten nach Entwürfen und Modellenaumeister, Bildhauer und Zeichner unserer Zeit; so wie nachulturen und älteren und neueren Kunstwerken geformt und aus-der Zinkgiesserei für Kunst und Gewerbe, catalog, vols. 1–6. Sachse, 1845–47); Moritz Geiss, Zinkguss-Ornamente nachen von Schinkel, Stüler, Persius, Schadow, Strack, Knoblauch,nderen, catalog, vols. 1–21 (Berlin: Lüderitz, 1841–52);Architektonische und plastische Verziernungen, Ornamente,räthe, Statuen und Skulturen nach Zeichnungen Stüler, Persius,k, v. Arnim,Häberlin, Gottgetreu u. A.; bestehend aus Akroterien,Rosetten, Vasen, Capitälen, Säulen, Modellons, Consolen, Gitter,

Reliefs undcatalog, voVerzierungZinkguss—vol. 14 (af

7 Amable fromno exampmains todVösgen, “Korrosionss14 (BerlinAmericanfountainsA. Grissomsity of Dethe OperaUnter dention on BArchitektur2004); Vö

8 DerIron from Cter for Stu

9 C. TRobert Woremains a

This content downloaded from 160.111.2All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms a

atuary like the Borghese Gladiators (fig. 2),neoclassical statues such asAntonioCanova’sd prominent commissions, such as the eigh-ures modeled by Ernst Rietschel for thent of the Berlin Opera House (1844).7

erlin, life-size statues made of zinc were castadapting themethodology employed thereything from iron cannon to the iron crosswar heroes and delicate filigreed jewelryf iron.8 Sand casting involves making im-ns of a model in sand to create negativento which molten metal is poured to repli-model. The molding process was relativelyated for a three-dimensional statue cast ince or only a few pieces, as was more or lessry for higher-melting statuary metals liked bronze until the advent of welding at thehe nineteenth century. Molds had to be la-ly made from sand in sections (known asolds) in order to be able to free the modele sand without damaging its impressions.tively, a wooden model carved from manypieces could be intricately assembled insuch a way that it could be safely disas-without damaging its impressions. Robert

s 15-foot-high cast-iron statue of Henry Clayfor example, was cast whole from a modelsing 150 wooden pattern pieces.9 In addi-

Winterthur Portfolio 46:1

ethermaking piecemolds or using a woodena core had to bemade in order to produce acasting.

Monumenten in Zinkguss ausgeführt von F. Kahle, in Potsdam,ls. 1–3 (Berlin: n.p., 1856); F. Kahle and Sohn, Architektonischeen, Ornamente und Skulpturen aus dem Modell-Lager derWaaren—Fabrik von F. Kahle & Sohn in Potsdam, catalog,ter 1871).erican-made copies of the Borghese Gladiators were avail-J. L. Mott Iron Works and M. J. Seelig and Co., althoughles have been located. A copy of Canova’s Hebe re-ay in the Schlosspark at Neustrelitz in Germany. NicolaBerliner Zinkguss des 19. Jahrhunderts, Katalog,” inchäden anZinkskulpturen,BerlinerBeiträge zurArchäometrie: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1997), 334–35. At least five-made copies of the statue in zinc were placed atopin the United States, although none are extant. Carol, Zinc Sculpture in America, 1850 to 1950 (Newark: Univer-

laware Press, 2009), 301–3. Statues for the pediment ofHouse were cast by Geiss and remain in place today onLinden, Berlin’s premiere boulevard. Formore informa-erlin-made statues, see Sabine Hierath, Berliner Zinkguss:und Bildkunst im 19 Jahrhundert (Cologne: Letter Stiftung,sgen, “Berliner Zinkguss,” 319–487.ek E. Ostergard and Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, eds., Castentral Europe, 1800–1850 (New York: BardGraduate Cen-dies in the Decorative Arts, 1994).. Hinckley, “A Day at the Ornamental Ironworks ofod,” Godey’s Lady’s Book 46 ( July 1853): 5–12. The statuetop a column in Pottstown, PA.

54.017 on September 18, 2018 10:24:26 AMnd Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

Sandiron or berally usinto wh

casting, the pieces were easily assembled by

Fig. 1. (1) Table legs for the Royal Palace in Berlin after Karl Friedrich Schinkel; (2) Rosette;Scss-en

10 Exures, whichcompiled a

Zinc Sta

casting a statue in zinc was far easier than in After

(3)Relief figure in theSt.NicholasChurch inPotsdam, afterlegs, after Schinkel,model byKiss. FromMoritzGeiss,ZinkguStüler, Persius, Schadow, Strack, Knoblauch, Stier und Ander

ronze. Simple two-part sandmolds were gen-ed for themultiple (andusuallymany) piecesich a model for a zinc statue was divided.10

solderinto disgu

ceptions were difficult-to-cast portions of life-sized fig-were sometimes slush cast. The last president of J. W. Fiskelist of molds and patterns held by the company: cast-iron

molds usedfor sand ca“List of Staalsohas bo

This content downloaded from 160.11All use subject to University of Chicago Press Term

hinkel,model byAugustKiss; (4) BenchOrnamente nachZeichnungen vonSchinkel,7 (Berlin: Lüderitz, 1844), plate 4.

tuettes of Cornelius and Baker 27

g to form the statue, and paint was appliedise the soldered joins.

mainly for slush casting heads of figures and zinc patternssting the largest portions of statues. JosephWarren Fiske III,tue Patterns,” unpublished manuscript, June 6, 1975. Heth cast-ironmolds and zincpatterns inhis personal collection.


Schicontribin otherwere casand, alcastingthis regFoundrbronze

r Gstaanw costs of building a zinc foundry and produc-statuary in zinc was especially popular withnation-states like Norway and Hungary that

ce

11 Thor reliefs i

28

nkel’s stature and promotion of the metaluted to the creation of zinc art foundriesGerman cities. In a few cases, zinc statues

st at traditional bronze foundries that cast inso the predominant technique for bronzeduring the nineteenth century. Notable in

undezincpest,the lotion,new

Fig. 2. Probably Moritz Geiss, Borghese Gladiators, entran1867. Zinc. (Photo, Carol Grissom.)

d is Ferdinand von Miller’s famous Royalin Munich, which cast many important

ary
statues for the US market.11 In other cities
e Royal Foundry cast at least forty-three different statuesn zinc, among them statues for two of Mad King Ludwig’s

castles, LiZinkguss,”

12 Ibid19. Jahrhu47 (1993)


ermanic influence, foundries for castingtues were set up, notably in Vienna, Buda-d the Scandinavian capitals.12 Because of

to the Charlottenberg Palace, Berlin,


nderhof and Herrenchiemsee. Kobler, “Über Zink und34–35..; FriedrichKobler, “FigurlicherZinkguss inÖsterreich imndert,” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kunst und Denkmalpflege: 158–65.


desiredlackedskilled l

In thsculptumainly inot untlarge AmClark Mby the sThus, thfancy wexhibitethe rece(b. 1809wide exmethodNew Yorclusivelymentatiestablishwas far s

Thetion ofmand it eincludintacked bycast in z(fig. 3).1

ing therial betpieces cnew statpattern

arancoedlsinld estanlil

hes aranwoic L18

miere newspaper building—the printers Johannberg and Johann Fust. Also erected in 1858avannah’s Forsythe Park Fountain, the first of

13 Mic1850–190

14 HeEcclesiasticof Kings anW. W. Mu

15 Momade forwhere it stof the Phithe Amazoin Londonature. Thetion in NeAmericanat the Censtatue in itfamily dispFifth AvenFound (Necertainly mit in its 187is a 20-inchalso listed

J. L.Mott IronWorks, Illustrated Catalogue of Statuary, Fountains,ettees, etc., for Parks Gardens and Conservatories (New York: Slater,preface.Many ofMott’s and Seelig’s statues are the samemod-hose produced by the German zinc foundries. Four copies ofAmazon were examined: at Schloss Fantasie in Donndorf,ny; in the garden of a private home in Augsburg, Germany;grounds of the ill-fated Prince Maximilian’s Miramare at, now in Italy; and in most detail at Armsmear, the homeunmagnate Samuel Colt inHartford. These were comparedAmerican-made copy at the Shelton Historical Society inn, Connecticut, featuring a plaque of the J. L.Mott IronWorksountain base. Copies of other statues producedon each side of

Zinc Sta

sculptural decoration and monuments butthe far more significant resources andabor necessary for bronze casting.e early years of the United States, publicres were few in number, and they weremported or carved in stone or wood. It wasil the mid-nineteenth century that the firsterican-made bronze statue was erected—

ills’s Andrew Jackson on Horseback—sand castculptor himself between 1848 and 1853.13

e domestic art metal industry was in its in-hen, in 1852, a low-relief zinc casting wasd at the Castle Garden Fair in New York byntly immigrated sculptor Moritz J. Seelig). In his native Germany, Seelig had gainedperience in using a range of metals ands for making sculpture. After he arrived ink in 1851, however, he “applied himself ex-to the production of zinc statuary and orna-on, for the two-fold reason that no similarment existed there, and that his methoduperior to the usual ones.”14

Seelig foundry followed the German tradi-aking life-size figuresmainly by sand casting,ven copied many Berlin-made zinc statues,g the renowned Amazon on Horseback At-a Lion,modeled byAugust Kiss andoriginallyinc at the foundry of Moritz Geiss in Berlin5 A zinc statue can be disassembled by heat-lower-melting lead-tin solder joining mate-ween zinc pieces, and the disassembled

by neGermmadeclaimmodecertawoulzincnot oand W

TStatethe Fand t(Publyear.Benjasmallfor thGutenwas S

16

Vases, S1873),els as tGeiss’sGermaon theTriesteof the gto anSheltoon its f

tuettes of Cornelius and Baker

an then be used as patterns for castingues in sand (in lieu of less durable plasters). Evidence that this was done is provided

hael Edward Shapiro,Bronze Casting and American Sculpture,0 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1985), 34–45.nry R. Stiles, ed., The Civil, Political, Professional andal History and Commercial and Industrial Record of the Countyd the City of Brooklyn, N.Y., from 1683 to 1884 (New York:nsell, 1884), 816–17.deled by Kiss in 1839, a bronze cast of the Amazon wasthe entrance to the Altes Museum in Berlin in 1843,ands today (a bronze copy cast in 1929 is on the groundsladelphia Museum of Art). A copper-plated zinc copy ofn won first prize for Geiss at the Crystal Palace Exhibitionin 1851, and it was much publicized in exhibition liter-statue was then exhibited at the Crystal Palace Exhibi-w York in 1853–54, where it was destroyed by fire. An-made zinc cast was exhibited by the J. L. Mott IronWorkstennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. Mott listed thes catalogs from 1874 to 1919, and the Jordan L. Mott Jr.layed a copy in the conservatory of their home at 2122ue in New York. Michael Henry Adams, Harlem Lost andw York: Monacelli, 2002), 53, 55. This statue was almostade at the foundry of M. J. Seelig and Co., which listed6 catalog. The only statuette Seelig is known to havemade-high copper-platedAmazon onHorseback Attacked by a Lion,in the company’s 1876 catalog.

the Atlant17 Ma

collectionYork PublMetropolitof these caportant Denow missinduced in FPotter, 19

18 ThCitizens B“bronzed”preneur JFranklin toLaborator1870 catain the M. Jfigures stowhen theknown as IBuilding isMargot GaSignificanc248. A secStewart Estands atoit was soldJanuary 27in Washin


ly identical measurements and details for-made Amazon statues and an American-py sold by the J. L. Mott Iron Works. Mottto have spared no expense in acquiringin Europe, and M. J. Seelig and Co. almosty cast the statues forMott.16 Seelig’s foundryventually produce the majority of life-sizetues for purveyors in the New York area,y those sold by Mott but also J. W. Fiskeliam Demuth and Co.17

earliest extant zinc statues in the Unitedre a life-size Benjamin Franklin placed onklin Lyceum in Providence in 1858 (fig. 4)-thirds-life-size figures placed on the Swainedger) Building in Philadelphia that same

Swain Building statues included the samen Franklin as on the Franklin Lyceum (butin size), a George Washington, and—suitable

29

ic have yet to be located for direct comparison.nyMott and Fiske catalogs have survived, especially in thes of the Library of Congress, Winterthur Library, the Newic Library, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, and theanMuseum of Art Print Study Room. For lists and locationstalogs, see Grissom, Zinc Sculpture, 631–35, 648–52. An im-muth catalog in the collection of the Library of Congress isg pages showing statues, but fortunately they are repro-rederick Fried’s Artists in Wood (New York: Clarkson N.70), 32–61.e over 6-foot-high statue of Franklin is now located at theank in Providence, along with a $300 receipt for thestatue written by a representative of the cast-iron entre-ames Bogardus. J. P. Morgan gave a copy of this sameVassar College, now in front of the Henry M. Sandersy of Physics. The 6-foot-high statue is illustrated in thelog of Janes, Kirtland, and Co., and both sizes are listed. Seelig and Co. catalog of 1876. Two copies each of fourod on the Swain Building in Philadelphia until 1952,building was demolished to make way for the Mall, nowndependence Park. One of each figure type from the Swainnow in the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.yle and Carol Gayle, Cast-Iron Architecture in America: Thee of James Bogardus (New York: Norton, 1998), 181–84,ond copy of theWashington from the collection of the late. Gregory was likely from the Swain Building, since itp a square cast-iron plate like statues at the Free Library;at auction in 1979 (Sotheby Parke Bernet Sale no. 4209,, 1979). A third copy ofWashington in a private collectiongton, DC, instead stands on a zinc plate.


many ctues (notion seebut aftelow-costhundreparticuBronzegels nafunerarIndiansbegan t

msheng tn tInd19ernz

. F, St

19 Thzinc sandbof zinc staStates showhite bronits affiliatesand castilead-tin soZinc Sculpand Ronamorials M41 (2003)

30

ast-iron fountains decorated with zinc sta-w replaced with copies). Statuary produc-ms to have halted during the Civil War,rward there was a significant demand formemorials to the common soldier. Severald zinc statues of infantrymen were erected,larly those made by the MonumentalCo. and its affiliates (fig. 5).19 Statues of an-med Faith, Hope, and Charity decorated

Williabaccotisemdurinbegalocalleastor othly bro

Fig. 3. August Kiss, Amazon on Horseback Attacked by a Lionnach Zeichnungen von Schinkel, Stüler, Persius, Schadow(Berlin: Lüderitz, 1844), plate 6.

y memorials made by the same companies.in the style of their wooden forebearso be sold by the tobacconist wholesaler

types detain statmonumthousanmainlycentury.e Academy Hill Monument is made of “white bronze,” a cast-

lasted product of the Monumental Bronze Co. A surveytues of soldiers and other military figures in the Unitedwed that 78 percent were produced in the trademarkedze exclusively made by the Monumental Bronze Co. ands. White-bronze statues and monuments were made byng, with parts assembled using zinc (instead of the usuallder) and surfaces sandblasted to imitate stone. Grissom,ture, 57–61, 85–86, 486–553, 647–48; Carol A. Grissomld S. Harvey, “The Conservation of American War Me-ade of Zinc,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation: 21–38.

20 Fri21 Tob

Indians gstands guof the Moin 1887. AMingo triWilliamso


Demuth and Co. as alternative signs for to-ops around 1870.20 As their roles as adver-ts for tobacco shops went out of fashionhe1880s, a statue knownas the IndianChiefo be placed atop civic monuments honoringians, a practice that would continue until at20.21 Surfaces of these statues were paintedwise treated to imitate othermaterials,main-e but also stone and polychromed wood. Thescribed here—architectural figures, foun-ues, war memorials, Indians, and cemeteryents—are representative of the several

romMoritz Geiss, Zinkguss-Ornamenterack, Knoblauch, Stier und Anderen 9

zinc statues erected in the United States,uring the last quarter of the nineteenthfter1900, use of zinc for statues diminished

, Artists in Wood, 28–75; Grissom, Zinc Sculpture, 75–92.cco 4 (February 24, 1888): 3 noted that “men who useerally have goods older than the squaw or buck thatd over them.”A statue of Lawrence, a Christian Indian

ddA

edaenar


hawk nation, was erected atop a fountain in Schenectadymong the latest copies of this statue is Chief Logan of thebe, erected around 1920 on the courthouse grounds inn, West Virginia.


https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showLinks?doi=10.1086%2F665364&crossref=10.2307%2F3180054&citationId=p_n_13

rapidly aof “statu

Corneli

Cornelicontemues in than altogapparenbusinesMoreov

Fig. 4. Be ceProviden

22 TheFountains (than eightto spurt wthe ChicagCounty, Mthe compa

Zinc Sta

njamin Franklin, façade of the Franklin Lyceum, Providence Public Library.)

mchhesmilaoItrt Ctiar,

s bronze became de rigueur and the periodemania” waned.22

us and Baker

us and Baker’s zinc production was exactlyporary with early casting of life-size zinc stat-e United States, but the company followedether different path in making statuettes,

reliedthe te

Tsilverto Phand Cliers.RobeChrisBake

tly because of its roots in the light-fixtures as well as differences dictated by scale.er, as will become clear, Cornelius andBaker

brotherand Bakof beinghibit atLondonthan fivChestn

last known catalog, J. W. Fiske’sOrnamental Iron and Zinc1953), illustrates statues that the company sold for morey years, such as the figure of a boy holding a fish plumbedater through its mouth. A Crucifixion Group produced byo-based Daprato Statuary Company was erected in Huronichigan, in 1956. It was made of copper-plated zinc thatny introduced in 1913 and termed “orbronze.”

23 The(London)


oreonFrance thanGermany in regard tobothnology and sources for its zinc statuettes.firm was started by Christian Cornelius, aith who had emigrated from Amsterdamdelphia and in 1827 founded Cornelius. as a manufacturer of lamps and chande-became Cornelius and Son in 1831 afterornelius (1809–93) joined the firm. Upon

n’s death in 1851, the partnership Cornelius,and Co. formed between Robert and his-in-law Isaac F. Baker; it became Corneliuser in 1855. The company had the honorthe only American gas-fixture firm to ex-

the influential Crystal Palace Exhibition in

, 1858. Zinc; H. 7700. (Rhode Island Collection,


in 1851.23 By that time, it employed moree hundred men and had a showroom onut Street and two large factory buildings

Crystal Palace Exhibition: Illustrated Catalogue, Art-Journal3 (1851; repr., New York: Dover, 1970), 212.


(fig. 6).lightingproduct

foreeli78hetenceliapithelip, bf dotlwor cerruceurfinibdaceingixts fo27 Et obitis “iestelimth

ing fixtures mainly in brass: ordinary candle-for daily use and high-end gilt-brass girandolesisplay on parlor mantels. The three-branched

Fig. 5. MStratford

24 Cenand 550 inphia, 1850ton, DC. Maround 50Builder: Th1861 (Waavailable/index.htbut that n

William Cornelius, “A Brief History of Robert Cornelius,”Read before the Historical Society of Frankford 3 (1937): 110–13.William F. Stapp, Robert Cornelius: Portraits from the Dawn of

32

onumental Bronze Co., Academy Hill Monument,, CT, 1889. Zinc; H. 35′. (Photo, Carol Grissom.)

25

Papers26

24 By far the largest manufacturer of gas-fixtures in the country, in 1860, its annuals were valued at $1,000,000, an enormous

sus records show 529 employees for the company in 18501860. US Census, Manufacturing Schedules for Philadel-and 1860, both accessed at the National Archives, Washing-ontgomery Meigs reported that the company employed0 men when he visited in 1855. Wendy Wolff, ed., Capitole Shorthand Journals of Montgomery C. Meigs, 1853–1859,shington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), 280;at http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate/meigsml. The Crystal Palace Exhibition noted 700 men in 1851,umber is apparently an exaggeration.

Photograp1983). Anthe collecwww.loc.g

27 Rob2008, Malighting bwas US PaOctober 1

28 JosUnited StaArts (Londlished as GNew York I(note).


that date (see tables 1 and 2). The firmighteen years, dissolving in 1869 to becomeus and Sons, which ceased manufacturing.Cornelius family had a penchant for thechnology, which fit with its seminal casting. According to family legend, Christianus melted down his wife’s entire silver ser-art from the cream jug) while experiment-silver-plating techniques.25 His son Robertus studied with eminent chemistry and ge-rofessors and, for a few years beginning inecame an important figure in the new pro-aguerreotyping.26 Two of his contributionsography are directly related to the family’srking business: production of high-qualityoatings on the copper plates used foreotypes and development of a polish thatd a particularly smooth finish on their sil-aces. He was also among the first to use ae accelerator that reduced exposure time,uting to the immediacy for which his por-guerreotypes are known. Already in 1841ived the first of fifteen patents related to, but he devoted himself full time to theure company only in 1842, when the user illumination began to take off in Philadel-nglishmen reporting to the British govern-n US industry at the Crystal Palaceon held in New York (1853–54) noted themmense advantage over both foreign andic competitors” on account of Robertus’s “various discoveries and expedients,echanical and chemical.”28

e early years, Cornelius and Son formed


sumlastedCornby 18

Tlatestin ziCornvice (ing wCornology1839cess oto phmetasilvedaguprodver sbromcontrtraithe relightgas-fof gaphia.menExhifirm’domCornboth

Inlightsticksfor d

hy (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press,important 1839 Self-Portrait of Robert Cornelius is now intion of the Library of Congress, accessible at http://ov/pictures/resource/cph.3g05001/#.ert Cornelius’s first patent was for a droplight (US Patent

rch 18, 1841). Six patents were for some version of “gasy electricity, frictional spark generator.” The first of thesetent 32354, May 21, 1861, and the last, US Patent 44708,8, 1864.eph Whitworth and George Wallis, The Industry of thetes in Machinery, Manufactures, and Useful and Ornamentalon: Routledge, 1854), 125–26; the same account is pub-eorge Wallis, “Special Report of Mr. George Wallis,” in

ndustrial Exhibition (London: ThomasHarrison, 1854), 99


Fig.lith

Zinc Sta
6. “Cograp

ornelius, Baker & Co., Manufacturers of Lamps, Chandeliers, Gas Fixtures, &c…,” W. H. Rease,her, Wagner and McGuigan, printers, Philadelphia, ca. 1856. (Library Company of Philadelphia.)

This content downloaded from 160.111.254.017 on September 18, 2018 10:24:26 AMAll use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

girandowith twotwo-partbut wouchimnelar withwould hCornelicost effefor thedimensizinc bycial firmand themous qin zinc,

Theto castwould cities ofPalace Ewas conthis douas displain 1853chandehad beg

omraCafignrnelius and Baker in catalogs of exhibitionse Franklin Institute in 1856 and 1858.33 Atame time, the company continued producing

Table 1Data on e E fr n rd

Yearl l

185018601870 $21880

Sourc lvan

29 SePowered D153–99, fonotable exThree-dimBenjamin FCorneliusdential Chbrass castiing, but thfigures wo

30 C. HMajesty’s S

31 FraAmerican MInstitute ofArts, from thS. Young,listed in th

with Flambeau” and “2 6 Light Chandeliers, Crusaders.” Theprobably refer to one of several Indian statuettesmade by theny; the latter may refer to the Richard Coeur de Lion–type fig-n armorial chandeliers purchased for the US Senate hallway1858 and a Richard Coeur de Lion reading light listed in

58 Franklin Institute exhibition. Franklin Institute, Report onenty-Sixth Exhibition of American Manufactures, Held in the City oflphia, from October 15, to November 13, 1858, by the Franklin Insti-the State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts:r with a Catalogue of the Articles Deposited previous to October 15,Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1858), 11. In the company’sisplay, several items described as “bronze” were almost cer-ade of zinc and painted to imitate bronze. Franklin Institute,

on the Twenty-Fourth Exhibition of American Manufactures, Heldity of Philadelphia, from November 14, to December 2, 1854, by then Institute, of the State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of theic Arts: Together with a Catalogue of the Articles Deposited previousember 14, 1854 (Philadelphia: Barnard & Jones, 1855), 18.ver, a statement about figures indicates the three-dimensional

34

les were sold in sets of three, often decorated-dimensional figural reliefs cast in simplesandmolds.29 The backs were undecoratedld not be seen when displayed against ay breast. As chandeliers becamemore popu-the advent of gas, three-dimensional figuresave been desirable, and it seems likely thatus and Baker began to cast in zinc to morectively make three-dimensional decorationsm. Once metal molds were made, three-onal castings could be produced quickly inthe slush-casting technique. For a commer-like Cornelius and Baker, time was money,company subsequently produced an enor-uantity of decorations for lighting fixturesincluding statuettes.exact date that Cornelius and Baker beganin zinc is unrecorded, but the companyertainly have become aware of the possibil-zinc through its attendance at the Crystalxhibition in 1851, where Geiss’s zinc Amazonsidered “the object of the Exhibition: aboutbts seem at rest.”30 Names of fixtures listedyed by the company at the Franklin Institute

the cdecoStateitol (knowby Coat ththe s

Cornelius & Sons, 28 District, 10th Ward $600,000Cornelius & Co., Manufacturers $1,500

e.—Data from the US Census Manufacturing Schedule for Pennsy

figureformercompaures oaroundthe 18the TwPhiladetute, ofTogethe1858 (1854 dtainly mReportin the CFrankliMechanto NovMoreo

can be associated with known zinc-decoratedliers, suggesting that Cornelius and Bakerun casting in zinc by that date.31 By 1855,

e H. Parrott Bacot, Nineteenth Century Lighting: Candle-evices, 1783–1883 (West Chester, PA: Schiffer, 1987),r an excellent discussion of girandoles. There are a fewceptions to the usual two-dimensional girandole figures.ensional gilt-brass statuettes of George Washington andranklin on three-branched girandoles attributed to thefirm appear to be identical to zinc figures on the Presi-andelier (1864) in the US Capitol. The model used forng could have been used for creatingmolds for slush cast-e entirely different methods for casting brass and zinculd have necessitated use of different molds.. Gibbs-Smith, The Great Exhibition of 1851 (London: Hertationery Office, 1950), 132.nklin Institute, Catalogue of the Twenty-Third Exhibition ofanufactures, Held in the City of Philadelphia by the Franklinthe State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of the Mechanice18th to the29th day ofOctober, 1853 (Philadelphia:William1853), 14–15. Likely chandeliers with zinc decorationse 1853 catalog include “2 15 Light Chandeliers, Indian

modelingment is nohuman fig

32 MoCapitol inat the US Cstairways lnoted tha“afterwar135, 234–in zinc wespun-brasumn Caplished repSpun-braszinc decoand Massa

33 Fraican Manuthe 29th daPennsylvanCataloguedelphia: Bon the Twe


pany was definitely producing chandeliersted with zinc castings for the Tennesseepitol, as well as zinc capitals for the US Cap-s. 7 and 8).32 Statuettes and reading lightsto have been made of zinc were exhibited

90,000 500 $300,000 $650,000$200 5 $2,000 $5,500

ia, accessed at the National Archives, Washington, DC.


Corn
lius Lamp and Gas-Fixture Companies xtracted
affordeticed iure.” Ibntgomproducapitoleadingt they wds bron35, 28re pais drumsitals inort, Ars globerationschusetnklin Ifacturey of Noia, forof the Ararnardnty-Sixt

54.017nd Con

om US Ce

d by slush castinn the modelingid., 57.ery Meigs saw ction at Corneliare found atopto Senate andere cast in zinzed by the ele0–81. Rather, tnted to imitate. W. T. Chase, “Senate Staircaschitect of the Cs and other eleon chandelie

ts state capitolnstitute, Report os, Held in the Cvember, 1856, bthe Promotion oticles Deposited p& Jones, 1857

h Exhibition, 10–

on September 1ditions (http://w

sus Reco

g in zinc: “A v, especially in

handeliers forus and Bakercolumns andHouse chambc but wronglyctrotype.” Whe acanthus-lbronze, backFinal Report:e, U.S. Capitoapitol recordments were trs, such as thbuildings.n the Twenty-Fity of Philadelpy the Franklin If the Mechanicrevious to Novem), 17–18; Fran11.

8, 2018 10:24:ww.journals.uc

s

ery decided impthe execution o

the Tennesseein 1855. The capilasters on priners. Meigs corsaid that theyolff, Capitol Bueaf decorationed by gold-coExamination ol Building,” uns, February 9, 1ypical backdropose at the Ver

ifth Exhibition ofhia, from the 1nstitute, of the SArts, Together wber 10, 1856 (Pklin Institute, R

26 AMhicago.edu/t-an

Value,
Average Capita raw number Annua Value ,
Company invested
materia l hands wages produc ts
Cornelius & Co., Mulberry Ward $300,000 $14,200 500 $122,400 $500,000Cornelius & Baker, E. D. of 10th Ward $700,000 $6,000 550 $204,000 $1,000,000

rove-f the

Statepitalscipalrectlywereilder,s castloredf Col-pub-999.s formont

Amer-1th totate ofith ahila-eport

d-c).

girandoprobabhave haever, is kcast in z

AnalBaker esuccessfrectly refavorite

anWancaanesem

Table 2Total Value of Lamp and Gas-Fixture Products and Number of Companies in Three Cities

Yeariu

u

1850 001860 00

1870

1880

SourcOffice,MaData for 1870 from Francis A. Walker, The Statistics of the Wealth and Industry of the United States, Ninth Census (Washington, DC: GovernmentPrinting Office, 1872), 3:728 (Philadelphia), 3:703 (New York), 3:677 (Boston). Data for 1880 from US Census Office, Report on theManufactu , 18

Note. his

34 In 1Assorted pTwenty-Sixthis was th1874, whicof the Frank1874 (Phbronze zinin appearicompany.appears oand on aHouse, alt

35 ResSmithsonitural decocollectionseum’sAnzinc. CaroCorneliuslished reptute, FebrFinal RepJackson onMuseumCrescence avate collecCatherineResearch a10, 2008.showed anfor lead, 0

Zinc Sta

les in gilt brass through at least 1858 andly years later (many clients would not yetd access to gas); only one girandole, how-nown to have been decorated with a figureinc.34

yses of samples confirm that Cornelius andmployed the nearly pure zinc necessary for

compzinc.brassture,comphousAcad

res of the United States (Washington, DC: Government PrintingOffice—Amounts are rounded to the nearest $100,000 or, when below t

ul casting, although the metal is often incor-ferred to as pot metal, white metal, or—theterm of antique dealers—spelter.35 Yet, the

referen“statuesues” wit

858, Cornelius and Baker exhibited “15 Sets Girandoles.atterns. Silver and Gilt.” Franklin Institute, Report on theth Exhibition, 11. Apparently on account of the Civil War,e last exhibition until the twenty-seventh exhibition inh displayed only gas fixtures. Franklin Institute,Cataloguelin Institute Exhibition, Open from the 6th to the 31st October,iladelphia: Jackson Brothers, 1874), 24. An imitation-c figure of a Putto with Wheat (Summer?) is exceptionalng on an otherwise gilt-brass girandole attributed to theBacot, Nineteenth Century Lighting, 193. The same figuren the Presidential Chandelier (1863) at the US CapitolCornelius and Baker chandelier at the Vermont Statehough the latter is not original to the building.ults for energy-dispersive X-ray analyses performed at thean’s Museum Conservation Institute showed that sculp-ration of Cornelius and Baker’s armorial gasolier in theof the US Senate and the Smithsonian American Art Mu-drew Jackson onHorsebackweremade with remarkably purel A. Grissom, “Final Report on a Technical Study of the& Baker Armorial Gasolier of the U.S. Senate,” unpub-ort no. 6091, Smithsonian Museum Conservation Insti-uary 28, 2007; Carol A. Grissom, “Addendum to theort on the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s AndrewHorseback,” unpublished report no. 5964, Smithsonianonservation Institute, Washington, DC, 2007. X-ray fluo-nalyses of three Cornelius and Baker statuettes in a pri-tion also showed that the primary constituent was zinc.Matsen, Winterthur Analytical Report no. 5126, ScientificndAnalysis Laboratory,WinterthurMuseum,NovemberResults for nearly 300 analyses of zinc statues in Germanyaverage amount of 98 percent for zinc, 1.8 percent

.2 percent for tin, 0.11 percent for iron, 0.06 percent

for cadm“KorrosioZinkskulptAmericandoor ZincScott, JerrConservat

36 C. TGodey’s Lazinc was nwas observessence industry of thpublishedDescriptionof Lamps,Rushlightpamphletthe Houseevent whicnotes thatpapers”; hlater thanand Its Maand Statist(PhiladelpPhiladelphitories and Radelphia:Industries oand Manuphia: Gala


y never seems to have advertised its use ofhile there is considerable detail about itsd bronze casting in contemporary litera-sting in zinc is rarely mentioned.36 They’s figural lighting fixtures made for statein Ohio and Tennessee and Philadelphia’sy of Music are repeatedly cited without any

83), 422 (Philadelphia), 417 (New York), 262 (Boston).amount, the nearest $10,000.


n

i

C

f

ce to their zinc com” and “reading lightsh the same names) e

ium, and 0.01 percent fsschäden an Zinkskulptuuren, 102–35. Similar amsculpture. Carol A. GrissomSculptures,” in Ancient any Podany, and Brian B. Con Institute, 1994), 279–3. Hinckley, “The Manufacdy’s Book 46 (March 1853ot yet being cast at the facted for this 1853 publicatiofive references that follow.e United States, 125–30, andas Wallis’s “Special Report oof the Establishment of Cornhandeliers & Gas Fixtures,Club, 1999), 23–24. The dwas written can be establishof Representatives clockh occurred in 1858. The othe text had already beenence, the publication of tthe date of the account. Enufactures: A Handbook Exhics of the Manufacturing Inhia: Edward Young, 1859)a and Its Manufactures: A HepresentativeMercantile HousEdward Young, 1867), 416f the United States; Charles Racturers of Pennsylvania in thxy, 1875), 510–11.

1.254.017 on September 18s and Conditions (http://ww

position. Rather, zi” (often featuring “stxhibited by Cornel

or copper. Josef Riederren,” in Korrosionsschädenounts have been found, “The Conservation of O

d Historic Metals, ed. Davidonsidine (Los Angeles: G04.ture of Gas and Gas Fixtur): 197–203. It is possible tory when copper-alloy castn. The account is repeatedWhitworth and Wallis, Theessentially the same accof Mr. George Wallis,” 98–1elius & Baker, ManufactuPhiladelphia (ca. 1858; reate that this twenty-four-ped by the fact that statuesare about to be sent out,riginal introduction, howe“published in one of our dhe pamphlet may have bedwin T. Freedley, Philadelpibiting the Development, Vardustry of Philadelphia in 18, 352–56. Edwin T. Freedandbook of the Great Manues of Philadelphia in 1867 (P–19; Greeley et al., The Gobson, ed., The Manufactoe Nineteenth Century (Phila

, 2018 10:24:26 AMw.journals.uchicago.edu/t-a

Cornel
s Phila delphia New Y ork City Bo ston total Corneli s % (No. of c ompanies) (No. of c ompanies) (No. of c ompanies) Total
$500,
0 $1,000, 0 50 $1,40 0,000 $6 00,000 $2,000,00 0
(
6) ( 17) $650,000 12 $1,200,000 $1,300,000 $3,000,000 $5,500,000
(9) (16) (10)$5,500 <1 $400,000 $2,500,000 $50,000 $2,950,000

(5) (14) (2)

e.—Data on Cornelius companies from the US Census Manufacturing Schedule for Pennsylvania. Data for 1860 from US Censusnufactures of the United States in 1860 (Washington, DC: Government PrintingOffice, 1865), 523 (Philadelphia), 381 (New York).

ncat-ius

er,anforut-A.

etty

es,”hatinginIn-unt04;rerspr.;ageforanver,ailyenhiaiety,57ley,fac-hil-reatriesdel-

nd-c).

and Ba1858 ar1875 cacompanbronzeout meitems dExhibitiuniqueing commetalwMoreovthe Unicame souse of “establisonly for“bronze

onceercl iss lntmthid

pprintrefw

Fig. 7. CUS Capit

. D

37 Thsured bylisted in Fritems inc“Buffalo,”ing “Merc“Franklin,anda “Segon the Twenstatues lis“Indian,” “and “Firem“Herald,”“Hawker,”“DeparturFranklin I

38 “EiROYAL, FREVIENNA AND

ETRUSCAN,price list. PShown at thphia: Zieg

36

ker at the Franklin Institute in 1856 ande invariably referred to as “bronze.”37 Antalog issued by the next iteration of they (Cornelius and Sons) identified thirteenfinishes available for its light fixtures with-ntioning zinc, nor is zinc mentioned forisplayed by the company at the Centennialon in Philadelphia in 1876.38 This was notto the Cornelius companies: other gas light-panies generally did not identify their

ork as zinc, particularly in trade catalogs.er, this phenomenon was not confined toted States. In France, bronze founders be-enraged with what they saw as the abusive

bronze” for zinc that in 1910 they formally

not cFran65 pmetaIn hireprihis fanotedrectly“a coauthoto idetantother

ornelius and Baker, Senate staircase capitals,ol, 1855. Zinc and brass. (Photo, Carol Grissom.)

Fig. 8

hed that the term “bronze” could be usedcopper-containing items and that the term-imitation” had to be used for those that did

Whisilent onwe cangray, waworks oat the statues and reading lights were made of zinc is en-

reference to known statuettes corresponding to itemsanklin Institute catalogs. In the 1856 exhibition, “bronze”luded statues of “Zouave & Highlander,” “Mercury,”“Stag,” and “Glove and Books”; a “1 Lt. Pillar” also featur-ury”; reading lights featuring “Tamborine,” “Brigand,”” “Washington,” “Water Carrier,” “Knight,” and “Hunter”;ar Lighter” featuring an “OldMan.”Franklin Institute,Reportty-Fifth Exhibition, 17–18. In 1858, “bronze” items includedted as “Indian and Hunter,” “Zouave and Highlander,”Departure andReturn,” “Horse Prior,” “RussianHussar,”an”; a “1 Lt. Pillar Morning”; and reading lights featuring“Grecian,” “Antique,” “Armor,” “Page,” “Chinese,” “Indian,”“Warrior” (apparently three different statues), “Richmond,”e,” “Return,” “StandardBearer,”and “RichardCoeurdeLion.”nstitute, Report on the Twenty-Sixth Exhibition, 10–11.ther of the following colors of Bronze at the same prices:NCH, VERDE, ROYAL AND ROMAN, VIENNA AND ROMAN, MOORISH,LAVENDER, ROYAL AND LAVENDER, VIENNA AND GREEN, NEW VERDE,ARGENTINE.” Cornelius and Sons, Gas Fixtures, no. 7, 1875hillip T. Sandhurst, Industrial and Fine Arts of the World: Ase Philadelphia and Other International Exhibitions (Philadel-ler, 1879), 284, 289, 290.

39 Inricants etsyndicaleet vocabula

40 VicNY: Amer

41 Myplate 63 atures withand in thefixtures ill(plates 23

42 OnCharles TChemical,1852), 1:(1830–19sentable cneither peican Sculpt


tain copper; in 1935, a law was enacted inthat bronze had to contain greater thanent copper.39 Finally, ignorance of thenot confined to the nineteenth century.

ate twentieth-century introduction to theof an 1860 catalog of lamps produced byily’s Dietz and Co., Ulysses Dietz correctlyatmany weremade of spelter, but he incor-entified this old-fashioned term for zinc aser and nickel alloy.”40 Even the preeminentty on gas fixtures, Denys Peter Myers, failedifymany gas fixtures illustrated in his impor-erence as made substantially of spelter, inords, zinc.41

le nineteenth-century literature is largelyreasons for the lack of recognition of zinc,

etail of capitals in fig. 7. (Photo, Carol Grissom.)


speculate. The metal, its cast surfaces dulls considered unattractive.42 Surfaces of zincf art were invariably treated to imitate other

1910, an accord was established by the Réunion des fab-des industries du bronze in agreement with the Chambredu bronze d’art. Marie-Thérèse Baudry, Sculpture: Méthodeire (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 2000), 300, 643.torian Lighting: The Dietz Catalogue of 1860 (Watkins Glen,ican Life Foundation, 1982), 18.ers, Gas Lighting. Myers identifies only the chandelier ins made of “spelter,” thus failing to correctly identify fix-zinc decorations at the Vermont State Capitol (plate 53)President’s Room at the US Capitol (pl. 54). Figures onustrated in another fifteen plates are likely made of zinc, 26, 27, 37–39, 43, 45, 48, 50–51, 56–57, 78–79).e author described the color as “repulsive” and “inartistic.”omlinson, ed., Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts, Mechanical andManufactures, Mining, and Engineering (London: Virtue,xcvi. The eminent American sculptor J. Q. A. Ward20) wrote that “there is no way of keeping the zinc in pre-ondition except by painting or electroplating with copper,rmanent.”MichaelRichman,Daniel Chester French: AnAmer-or (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976), 41.


materiavisible. Tedge oftoday. Ified in sobjectsBarn’s 2and its uRaimuntural Inand Baktions infar bettewith fingas fixtuthe moto be ex

Slush C

Captainrary excand Bakon accowide-ranof constSenate a1853 tomake canoting ito be caalso ordgas fixtuing, sucMoreovmises inslush caures …are castifice, beexcept awith sidthe figuare aftemade to

43 WoMeigs alsocast a snak

44 Thedelier werthe armetsprobably hrecently acciated with

45 Wo

Zinc Sta

ls, which effectively rendered the metal in-his contributed to a general lack of knowl-the metal, which is still largely in evidencet is rare to find zinc statues correctly identi-pite of the metal’s popularity for decorativewith an industrial quality, such as Pottery002 “zinc collection” of ashtrays and vases,se as ametal for cladding buildings, such asd Abraham’s award-winning Austrian Cul-stitute (2002) in New York City. Corneliuser’s successful painting of its zinc decora-imitation of bronze, a metal alloy that wasr known, gave them a desirable associatione art. Thus, in referring to its statuettes and


res as bronze, Cornelius and Baker took

ushsee oed,ly,

. Cain entrance to the Senate chamber, US Capitol,Zi 00

uscson

re conventional (and lucrative) approachpected from a commercial enterprise.

asting

Montgomery Meigs was a rare contempo-eption in correctly referring to Corneliuser’s zinc castings as made of zinc, perhapsunt of his training as an engineer and hisging curiosity. As superintendent in chargeruction of the US Capitol extensions for thendHouse of Representatives chambers from1859, he proposed that Cornelius and Bakerpitals for the Senate staircase inOctober1854,n his journal in February1855 that they werest in zinc.43 Beginning around 1857, Meigsered many zinc-decorated chandeliers andres from Cornelius and Baker for the build-h as those for the Senate hallway (fig. 9).44

er, after visiting Cornelius and Baker’s pre-June 1855, he described the technique ofsting used at the factory: “The small fig-used as decorations for the chandeliers …in a moment, and the mold has a large or-ing reversed. The liquidmaterial pours out,small quantity which is chilled by contact

es of the mold and which remains to make

Slbecaupositpoureven

Fig. 9the m1858.MattaSmith

res. These figures, which are made of zinc,rwards colored by various processes andimitate bronze or gold, as needed.”45

its nammetal aprocessingmoluse forto castinlow-mel

lff,Capitol Builder, 135, 234–35. In April andMay of 1855,had the head of the Capitol’s foundry Federico Casalie and a lizard in zinc. Ibid., 265, 267.shield and associated weapons at the center of the chan-

e cast in brass, but other sculptural decorations, such ason either side of the shield, were slush cast in zinc, whichad a bronze finishwhennew.Amore elaborate chandelierquired by the US Senate features figures that may be asso-crusaders or Richard Coeur de Lion.lff, Capitol Builder, 280.

46 M.plate 8. SaPewter in ALegacy Pr


casting can be used only for small castingsa single person has tomanipulate the com-f metal molds into which molten zinc issloshed around to coat the mold surfacesand poured back out. The method takese from the slushy character of the coolings it is poured out. For millennia, a similarhas been used for casting plaster and coat-ds with wax during lost-wax casting. Its prior

nc and brass; H. 41 . (Collection of Daniel W.h and Nancy E. Mattausch; photo, D. E. Hurlbert,ian Institution.)

ornelius and Baker, chandelier, originally in

37

metal casting, however, was limited mainlyg small items such as spouts and spoons inting alloys like pewter.46

Salmon, Art du potier d’étain (Paris: Moutard, 1788), 62,lmon’s illustration is reprinted in Ledlie Irwin Laughlin,merica: Its Makers and Their Marks (New York: Americaness, 1981), 1:17, plate 3.


Thein zinccraftsmcastingwere waand intemultiarlightingbe propfreed wcise fittminimilines) aa metalthere arand Bakever, sinzinc statin1884J. W. FiOnce mand signwould bings. Thinexpencastingence intive chethe ecobe castdifficultevery pimoulds

Theoped inered inParis for

rydeofw

e Utree fangonseinty oareumelianuced the requisite metal molds.53 However,-cauce

taiew

est-known zinc statuette produced byCorneliusaker is the 2-foot-highAndrew Jackson onHorse-fig. 10), almost certainly made from a plaster

47 ThG. W. Yap

48 “ClWorks Deing,” Brook.brooklynpmolds.

49 AshIndustry, 1selectionsunder thePictorial A

50 Juliin Les granMichel Léd’art, fonts1880), 6;françaises,d’art et d’aminternation

In 1878, e.g., there were 1,200–1,300 workmen at seventy-mpanies producing around 9 million articles. Exposition uni-internationale de 1878 à Paris, Catalogue official (Paris: Imprimerieale, 1878), 2:196. As many as 80 percent of the candelabraatuettes made by the Parisian firm of J. Boy are said to havexported. Bernard Metman, “Répertoire des fondeurs du

38

metal molds required for slush castingwere expensive on account of the skilledanship required to make them, and slushbecame economical only when small itemsnted inmultiples, such as for the decorativerchangeable parts of Cornelius and Baker’smed chandeliers and other elements offixtures.47 Not only did the molds have toerly divided to allow the zinc casting to beithout being caught by undercuts, but pre-ing together of the molds was desirable toze finishing at mold junctures (partingfter casting. The molds had to be made ofwith a higher melting point than zinc, bute no records indicating whatmetal Corneliuser employed. Brass seems most likely, how-ce it was easy to finish and used formoldinguettes made by the Ansonia Clock Company;more tedious-to-finish cast ironwas used forske’s slush-casting molds for statue parts.48

ade, metal molds produced excellent detailificantly reduced the amount of time thate required for finishing other types of cast-us, copies could be reproduced quickly andsively. A contemporary comparison of slushand sand casting notes: “It is not the differ-cost of metal which accounts for compara-apness of the immitation [sic] bronze. It isnomy in the cost of labor. Real bronze canonly in sand moulds, hence the process isand slow, a new mould being required forece cast; while zinc is readily cast in metalwhich last for years.”49

technique of slush casting in zinc was devel-

centuprovitionwhichto ththe swherlookiand cVenuHunttwenmenthemworkCorncompprodslushprod

A DeAndr

The band Bback (

51

five coversellenationand stbeen e

e

rance, where it is said to have been discov-845.50 It was the principal method in use inasting zinc until the end of the nineteenth

Parisian slush-castingmolds were “very costly” is noted byed., Art Industry: Metal-Work (London: Virtue, 1878), 37.ck Making and Its Progress in Brooklyn: The Ansoniaribed—the Metals and Minerals Used in Watch Mak-n Eagle, August 24, 1884, 11; available at http://eaglebliclibrary.org/. See n. 10 regarding Fiske’s slush-casting

r and Adams,Asher and Adams Pictorial Album of American76 (New York: Rutledge, 1976), 49; this is a reprint ofom the 1876 edition published by Asher and Adamsitle Asher & Adams’ New Columbian Rail Road Atlas andm of American Industry.Turgan, “Mines et fonderie de zincde laVieille-Montagne,”es usines: Ètudes industrielles en France et à l’étranger (Paris:Frères, 1865), 3:238; M. G. Servant, Rapport sur les bronzes

XIX siècle,”Documents sur la sculpture française et répertoire des fondeursdu XIXe siècle, Archives de l’Art français, n.s., 30, no. 178 (Nogent-le-Roi: Libraire des Arts etMétiers-Éditions, 1989). Candelabra withfigures sculpted by Albert Carrier-Belleuse, which were sold by Boy,still decorate the staircase of the Union League of Philadelphia.Grissom, Zinc Sculpture, 271. New York–based gas-fixture companiesare known to have imported items. Archer and Pancoast Manufac-turing Company, e.g., advertised itself as an “Importer of FrenchBronzes and Crystal Chandeliers.” Archer and Pancoast Manufactur-ingCompany, advertisement,AmericanGas-Light Journal 22 ( January 2,1875): 14. Although it is unclear whether Mitchell, Vance, and Co.imported statuettes, the company was listed as “Mfrs. & Imps. GasFixtures” in an 1859 R. G. Dun and Company report, New York,vol. 323, p. 842, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker Library Histor-ical Collections, Harvard Business School.

52 “Cheap Art,” Crayon 2 (October 17, 1855): 248.53 Workmen at the company were said to include “eight or nine

Englishmen, the rest being Germans, French, and Americans; butthe majority are undoubtedly native workmen.” Freedley, Philadel-phia and Its Manufactures: A Handbook Exhibiting the Development, 356.

54 Production of life-sized statues from sand casts was dominantin Germany. The only known examples of smaller items are models

F1c

atp,osclyu

e8frt

lbuendvy
diverses, métaux repoussés (Paris: Imprimerie nationale,
Paul Poiré, La France industrielle ou description des industries3rd ed. (Paris: Hachette, 1880), 624; Albert Susse, Bronzeseublement, Rapports, Commissariat Général à l’Expositionale deChicago (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1894), 32–34.

for large bmaquettein the colland a reduWilliam Ri


. The strong Parisian bronze-casting industryd high-quality molds that enabled produc-an enormous quantity of French statuettes,ere exported in large quantities, especiallynited States.51 One critic noted: “Walkingets we are attracted, in almost every windowncy goods are exposed, to a crowdof statuetteslike bronze, and representing every posetortion of the human figure—Gladiators,s, Cupids, Mercurys, Nymphs, Satyrs andg Dianas. … An ordinary worker can makef these a day, and thousands of such work-employed in France and Germanymakingp ‘for the American market.’”52 Frenchen may have brought the technique tous and Baker, although it is likely that they’s experienced workmen could also have


st zinc statuettes seem to have been rarelyd in Germany.54

led Look at the ExceptionalJackson on Horseback

ronze sculptures, which include Ferdinand von Miller’s(1869) for the Tyler Davidson Fountain in Cincinnati, nowection of the Cincinnati ArtMuseum (acc. no. 1952.198),ction of theNationalMonument to Our Forefathers (1889) aftermmer at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in a private collection.


Zinc Sta
Fig. 10.May 15/State Mu

Cornelius and Baker after Clark Mills, Andrew Jackson on Horseback. Marks: “PATENTED/1855” (right base); “CORNELIUS & BAKER/ PHILADELPHIA” (left base). Zinc; H. 2400. (Tennesseeseum, Nashville; photo, Shelley Reisman Paine.)


model ferectedWhite Htion of tin anticbronzetion casMAY 15/for thedie-stamthe cor11).56 NregardinBaker stwas giveday.57 Athe coll1859.58

tested bmuseumty yearsmore licreased

A plmittee iinal molikenesnot yetleast tware ext

linModnsonT

theckse Ma powakr m

55 USmay haveNewOrleain collectin. 68. In 2Ray andM0603, lotNew OrleCameron

56 Ththe horse’parently, tyears: letthave iden

57 Wh58 Ne59 Ot

the SmithpartmentCopies arAugusta, GAmerican(acc. no.Lancasterno. 1982.(acc. no.2County M

60 JamDC: Natio

1.n oGr

40

or Clark Mills’s over-life-size bronze statuein 1853 in Lafayette Square opposite theouse. In 1855, Mills submitted an illustra-hemonument for a design patent, probablyipation of both the statuettes and a full-scalecopy in New Orleans (1856).55 An inscrip-t into the statuette’s right base, “PATENTED/1855,” references the sculptor’s applicationdesign patent, while Cornelius and Baker’sped brass label was generally soldered toresponding spot on the left base (fig.o further documentation has been locatedg Mills’s relationship to the Cornelius andatuettes, but in 1859, a copy of the statuetten to the White House, where it remains to-second copy of the Jackson statuette enteredection of the New-York Historical Society inMore recent interest in these statuettes is at-y the fact that at least nine were acquired bys from private collections over the past thir-.59 Around twenty copies are known, andkely exist. Purchase prices have steadily in-to nearly six figures.aster model shown to the monument com-n mid-1848 has been proposed as the orig-del for the statuette based on its poors of Jackson, since at that date, Mills had

Caroat theter mdimeJackscal.61

thanon Jaon thposeare knandBplaste

Fig. 1JacksoCarol

studied Jackson’s portraiture in detail.60 Ato plaster models with connections to Millsant: one in the collection of the North

Examon Horsepany’s ftogethe

Patent application, no. 704, May 15, 1855. The statuettebeen used as part of fund-raising efforts for the full-sizedns bronze, since a number of statuettes have been foundons in the New Orleans area. Shapiro, Bronze Casting, 181006, a copy was sold from the New Orleans collection ofartha Ann Samuel byNewOrleans AuctionGalleries, sale58, May 20. At least three others have been sold fromans collections by James Graham and Sons in New York.Shay, personal communication, 2005–6.e plaque located at the bottom edge of the left base belows rear hooves reads “CORNELIUS & BAKER/ PHILADELPHIA.”Ap-he same die was used to stamp plaques for a number ofers on Jackson and other Cornelius and Baker statuettestical spacing, tilt, and heights.ite House acc. no. 1859.1451.1.w-York Historical Society acc. no. 1859.6.her Washington, DC, copies are found in collections ofsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (acc. no. 85.8), US De-of Treasury, and Blair House (acc. no. BH-2007.0167).e also in the collections of the Morris Museum of Art,A (acc. no. 1989.03.236); Crystal Bridges Museum ofArt, Bentonville, AK; Tennessee StateMuseum, Nashville2001.101); Andrew Jackson Historical Park Museum,County, SC; Virginia Military Institute, Lexington (acc.0050); and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond006.37). A copy formerly in the collectionof theGreenvilleuseum of Art in Greenville, SC, is now in private hands.es B. Barber, Andrew Jackson: A Portrait Study (Washington,nal Portrait Gallery, 1991), 216.

61 ThbyMills toseum in 1collectionwas given(Mrs. Ray

62 Clamany copbe lost.MiinCharlesJanuary 30Gallery, SNational CSmithsoni

63 In aplastermothem toCthe skill ofcast.” Womeant theis applied

64 CoBridgesMBlairHousArt MuseuTennesseeMuseumotion of the


aMuseum of History (fig. 12) and the otheraryland Historical Society. These two plas-els are comparable to the zinc statuette inions and form, including the rendition of’s face, although the three are not identi-he North Carolina copy is more detailedMaryland copy: the braid pattern is definedon’s epaulets, for example, whereas it is notaryland copy. These discrepancies do not

roblem, however, since other plaster copiesn tohavebeenmade.62Moreover, Corneliuser’s foundrymight well have altered whateverodel it received prior to casting.63

ination of ten copies of the Andrew Jackson

Detail, Cornelius and Baker plaque, Andrewn Horseback. Brass. (Private collection; photo,issom.)


back revealed many details about the com-abrication methods.64 Each was solderedr from more than twenty cast-zinc sections

e plaster model in Raleigh (acc. no. 51.42.1–2) was givena Presbyterianminister, David X. Junkins, and to themu-951 after several changes in ownership. The copy in theof the Maryland Historical Society (acc. no. 1945.30.1)byMills to Charles W. Buckingham, the uncle of its donormond Hughes).rk Mills was a plasterer by training, and he likely madeies. Two additional plaster statuettes, e.g., are known tolls presented a copy to aMr. Ravenel, which was destroyedtonduring theCivilWar.D. E.Huger Smith to JohnBennett,, 1918, Catalogue of American Portraits, National Portraitmithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. A copy in theollection of Fine Arts (no. XX12), a forerunner of thean American Art Museum, has been missing since 1977.nother instance, Meigs was unhappy with Francis Vincenti’sdels for theUS Senate stairway capitals, and when he sentornelius and Baker, he exhorted the company to “exhausttheir artists and chasers upon them before they begin tolff, Capitol Builder, 201. By “chasers,” Meigs apparentlymen who finished the plastermodels; normally, the termto those who finish metal objects.pies were examined in the collections of the Crystaluseumof AmericanArt (before acquisition by themuseum),e, theNational Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian’s Americanm, the White House, the New-York Historical Society, theState Museum, the Virginia Military Institute, the Virginiaf Fine Arts, and a private collection (formerly in the collec-Greenville County Museum of Art).


in additand swo

k. Pho

65 Twofig. 13. Smportions o

Zinc Sta

Fig. 12. Cornelius and Baker, Andrew Jackson on HorsebacH. 2500. (North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh; p

ion to sheet-zinc horse’s reins, stirrup straps,rd straps (fig. 13).65 This is not surprising

given thbut it isand Bak

additional castings are not visible in the view illustrated inall cast pieces are also part of the horse’s tack, while otherf the tack were cut from sheet zinc. Sand casting was prob-

ably used fJackson stat


laster, copper reins (replacements);to, Eric N. Blevins.)


e complex form of an equestrian statue,far more than for most other Corneliuser statuettes, typically comprising only a

or simpler parts of the statuette, such as the four parts of theuette’s base that lack undercuts requiring piece molding.


handfultechniqJacksonused forthe topwhere m

Uniinch-dilegs, visnuts onprovidelegs of tmost ceand thepoint atstatuettsuccessftogethefrequen

t oits side,In cont

inxams aant dtatseamibeof-wil that leaked out between molds. On others, the same area was carefully chased to imi-he lengthwise hairs of the tail.70

Fig. 13. Schematic drawing of Andrew Jackson on Horse-back sho(S) sadd

66 Theparts, conwith tree scanteens w

67 CoMuseum Ciridium soReisman P

Right-arm breakage of copies in the collections of theal Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian Museum of Americanto treatment of their Jackson statuettes by the author. Carolssom, Andrew Jackson on Horseback, unpublished report57, Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Educa-

Ftoca

42

of castings.66 Evidence of the slush-castingue can be seen by close observation of’s head. It shows that four metal molds wereits casting (for each half of Jackson’s face andand back of his head), evidenced by seamsetal leaked out between them (fig. 14).

que to the Jackson statuettes are quarter-ameter iron rods inside the horse’s hindible in X-radiographs and fixed with heavythe underside of the base.67 While the rodssupport for the horse and rider, the hindhe rearing horse are invariably cracked, al-rtainly because of the weight they supportfact that there is movement at the pivottachment of the horse’s feet whenever thee is moved. Fortunately, the iron rods are

cast zE

enceso mslighone sThebe uninscrsidecrossmetacopietate t

wing twenty-one castings. (B) base; (H) horse;le; ( J) Jackson. (Drawing, Carol Grissom.)

68

NationArt ledA. Grino. 59

ul in keeping the cracked pieces of the legsr. In contrast, Jackson’s raised right arm hastly been broken off, probably from the

Departure and The Return, e.g., are each cast in threemainsisting of most of the figure, the raised arm, and the basetump. In addition, accoutrements like the knapsacks andere cast separately and soldered to the figures.

nventional X-radiography was done at the Smithsonian’sonservation Institute, and X-radiographs made using anurce confirmed that the rods are continuous. Shelleyaine, conservator, personal communication, July 2006.

tion (nowMarch 7, 2back (SAAMvation Insbeen seen

69 Suseen on cArt MuseuSociety cothe copy ature, 472.

70 Thtle chasinNashville.


f the statue on the arm when laid down onas it might well have been during transport.68

rast to bronze, the principal drawback ofc is that it is brittle and easily broken.ination also revealed many small differ-

mong copies, attributable to assembly fromy pieces and finishing by hand. There areifferences in the positioning of parts fromue to the next and in postcasting chasing.m on Jackson’s trousers, for example, mayarked or delineated by a single or doubled line.69 The mold juncture along the topthe horse’s tail on one copy bears roughse marks of a file used to quickly remove

ig. 14. Detail of Jackson’s head, with arrowsmold-parting lines. (Smithsonian Ameri-n Art Museum; photo, Carol Grissom.)

weigh

the Mu006, an1983.1

titute, Seon cop

ch treatmopies inm, Natpies, rest the Ne

e Smithg comp

54.017 ond Cond


seum Conservation Institute), Washington, DC,d “Treatment Report for Andrew Jackson on Horse-01.5),” no. 5964, Smithsonian Museum Conser-ptember 20, 2006. Right-arm breakage has alsoies in Lexington and Nashville.ent of the seams on Jackson’s trousers can bethe collections of the Smithsonian American

ional Portrait Gallery, and New-York Historicalpectively. For a detail photograph of a seam onw-York Historical Society, see Grissom, Zinc Sculp-

sonian American Art Museum’s copy has lit-ared to examples in Lexington, Virginia, and

n September 18, 2018 10:24:26 AMitions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).

Nearing thatishers in“CC,” “these leand at leLetters aviewer:Jacksonside of tman’s pto the infound ocopy ofof FineAmeral “Xand oneuette’s p

Evidies of thmise ofbears thstatuettbecausedamageone-sixtuniquepears lecastingNeverthsame assectioniproperin its m

hebeeliuyelld tfacrnshathtronce, as inous fols aamarstteuxc works of art to simulate bronze, gold, poly-e wood, and stone, primarily using paint buty plating, gilding, and even sandblasting.77

71 Thhorse’s taiundersideletters “CCright coatitials andcoattail.

72 Shaedition mCrystal Bricopy in anin Lexingta person,

73 Coplection lacsmall base“Treatmewithout taleast one oAndrew Jacincluding“PATENTED/Weschlersuette seen

Mitchell, Vance, and Co., advertisement,Harper’s Weekly,Oc-, 1878, 800.Report on Cornelius and Co., September 9, 1878, Philadel-ol.133, p.296 a/94, R.G.Dun&Co.Collection, Baker Librarycal Collections, Harvard Business School.Other Cornelius figures can be seen in plates 25, 26, and 269hell, Vance, and Co.’s Picture Book of Authentic Mid-Victorian

Zinc Sta

ly all Jackson statuettes have hidden letter-in most cases seems to reflect initials of fin-scribed during chasing, including “AK,”

F,” “FF,” “FV,” “S,” “V,” and “X.” Most oftters are found on more than one copy,ast two copies bear multiple sets of letters.71re located in places hidden from the casualunderneath the horse’s hooves and tail or’s boots and coattail, as well as on the under-he base. One can imagine that it was a work-ride in making the Jackson statuettes that ledscription of initials, since they have not beenn any other statuettes. An inscription on athe Jackson statuette at the Virginia Museumrts seems to be an exception: the romannu-XIII” is inscribed beneath the horse’s tailhoof, which would seem to indicate the stat-lace in an edition.72

ence suggests that at least three more cop-e Jackson may have been cast after the de-Cornelius and Baker. None of the threee Cornelius and Baker plaque. Two of thees lack tassels on the saddle blanket, likelythe tassel portion of the mold had becomed. The third has a base measuring abouth the size of the standard base, which isamong copies as far as is known. Detail ap-ss sharp on these copies, indicating thatoccurred after molds had become worn.eless, it is clear that the molds were thefor Cornelius and Baker–inscribed copies:

ThaveCorning bMitchquiremanupattewho,ferredfor patinuaVancgoodold hmoldmodefor exappestatue

Faof zinchromalso b

74

tober 575

phia, vHistori

76

in Mitc


ng is the same, and identical cracks in theright horses’ manes reflect the same flawold.73

e White House copy has “AK” under the center of thel, “V” under the top of the horse’s tail, and “FF” on theof the base. TheNew-YorkHistorical Society copy has the” under the horse’s tail and “F” under Jackson’s proper

tail. Grissom (ibid., 472–75) lists additional inscribed in-includes a photograph showing the “F” under Jackson’s

piro (Bronze Casting, 42) proposed that inscriptions arearks. An “X” under the right boot heel of a copy at thedges Museum of American Art could represent the tenthedition, but a “V” found on statuettes at theWhiteHouse,on, and in Nashville more likely represents the initials ofsince it is found on several copies.ies at Blair House and in a private Washington, DC, col-k the Cornelius and Baker plaque, as does a copy with aat the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Grissom,

nt report for Andrew Jackson on Horseback.” The copiesssels are at Blair House and in the private collection. Atther statuette of size similar to the Cornelius and Bakerkson was cast in bronze but is entirely different in detail,a tree prop under the horse. This statuette, also inscribedMAY 15/1855,” was sold in February 1994 at Adam A.and Son inWashington, DC. It is probably the bronze stat-in a private collection inHuntingdonValley, Pennsylvania.

Gas LightinThese incPresidenti(no. 098,StateHousand SonsMercury (that on apairs of stadelphia’s Aillustratedin the Vermon the PreHerald (nfig. 15, inHouse fixtprivate collThe catalopany’s addCo.movedthan 1877tion to Cohad takenmirror imoccurs wh

77 Whand its eleplating hawithstandinplating wa


metal molds used for slush casting woulden valuable company assets passed on tous and Sons and sold at its demise to a will-er. In 1878, in fact, the New York–based, Vance, and Co. announced that it had ac-he company’s patterns: “We are prepared toture and offer for sale the varied and elegantof Cornelius and Co. [sic], of Philadelphia—ving discontinuedmanufacturing, have trans-at portion of their business to us. Thankfulnage generously bestowed, we solicit its con-e.”74 Since the arrangement with Mitchell,nd Co. was for themanufacture of “all theircluding all the Patterns and Designs of these,” the transfer almost certainly includedr slushcasting in zinc.75At leastnineCorneliusppear in catalogs ofMitchell, Vance, andCo.:ple, Cornelius and Baker’sHerald (fig. 15)to be identical toMitchell, Vance, andCo.’son two table lamps (nos.0112 and 0968).76

finishes were invariably applied to all types

43

g Fixtures (1877 or earlier; repr., New York: Dover, 1984).lude a Franklin (no. 0108, 15 inches) like that on theal chandelier at the US Capitol; a Revolutionary Soldier16 inches) like figures on light fixtures in the Vermonte; a Knight (no. 0882, 16 inches) like that in the Corneliuscatalog with an 1875 price list (no. 5678, 17 inches); ano. 0962, 21 inches; no. 1550, 19 inches to burner) likepair of reading lights in the Vermont State House andndards flanking the two staircases in the lobby of Phila-cademy of Music; Hiver (no. 0838, 15 inches) like thatin the Cornelius and Sons catalog and on a light fixtureont StateHouse; aHawker (no. 078, 17 inches) like thatsidential Chandelier and at the Vermont State House; ao. 0112, 15 inches, and no. 0968, 18 inches) like that inthe Cornelius and Sons catalog, and on a Vermont Stateure; a seated Chinaman (no. 0534, 10 inches) like that in aection inWashington, DC; and a Stag (no. 0902, 14 inches).g from which the Picture Book was made lists the com-ress as 597 Broadway, from which Mitchell, Vance, andin 1877 to 836 and 838Broadway. Thus, it dates no later, suggesting that Mitchell, Vance, and Co. had a connec-rnelius and Sons before 1878, when it announced that itover production for Cornelius. Some illustrations areages of the statues, likely a function of the reversal thaten printing plates are engraved.ile Cornelius and Baker electroplated its brass fixtures,ctroplating capacity in silver is described in the literature,s not been found on any zinc castings to date, Meigs not-g (see n. 32). Hinckley, “Manufacture ofGas,”201. Coppers common in Europe, but it was rare in the United States


Not onlnativessurfacesis darkezinc. Inbronze

esumone Jth

al agscalucwnueowas baked on.80 Most original coatings onelire

r C

eliiniva(ses aa

ibery lmattrir cce near the center front edge, or stamped intotached brass plaque like that found on Jacksonettes (see fig. 11).82 Imitation-bronze statuettes

Fig. 15. Cornelius and Baker, Herald. Mark: “CORNELIUS

& BAKER” 3 00

MattauscSmithson

until introStatuary C1879, sandof stone oalso refere

Shapiro, Bronze Casting, 41–42.Most of the coatings sampled on seven autograph statuettesivate collection were found to contain copper-alloy flakes.. Grissom, “Imitation-Metal Paint Study,”no.6240, Smithsonian

Museum Conservation Institute, 2010. Copper was also found on fourutograph statuettes in the same collection. Matsen, Winterthurcal Report no. 5126.Whitworth andWallis, The Industry of the United States, 127. Ina gum dissolved in alcohol was said to be applied by brush toobjects apparently made of brass, but it is not clear if thise continued or if the same substance was used on zinc cast-inckley, “Manufacture of Gas,” 201. Linseed oil was foundatuette of America (an Indian) in a private collection. Matsen,thur Analytical Report no. 5126.

44

y did these finishes provide attractive alter-to the gray metal, but they served to unifycrossed by joins of lead-tin solder, which

(base). Zinc; H. 12/8 . (Collection of Daniel W.h and Nancy E. Mattausch; photo, D. E. Hurlbert,ian Institution.)

other aAnalyti

80

1853,heatedpracticings. Hon a stWinter

r in color and smoother in texture thanthe case of the Jackson statuettes, imitation-paints unified the twenty-odd sections. Such

duced in 1913 for the religious statues of the Dapratoompany. Grissom, Zinc Sculpture, 85–86, 589–90. Byblasting was used to approximate the duller appearancen zinc cemetery monuments termed “white bronze”; seences in n. 19.

81 A rBaker’s AnArt (Autum

82 Inon differeDeparture.tially werestamped iposite seqof removaplaques. A


are often so good that it is not unusual fors to identify their zinc statuettes as made

ze.78 The New-York Historical Society’s copyackson statuette has a particularly attractiveat appears to be original to the statuette’st the museum in 1859. Imitation-bronzeoften contain copper or brass flakes; in someses, theymay have been created using only aent coating of dark brown tint.79 Corneliusto have experimented with coatings to findr that was “quite permanent under any var-f temperature,” probably an oil-resin coating


us and Baker statuettes were thinly appliednow brittle and dulled by time.

ornelius and Baker Statuettes

us and Baker sold many other zinc statu-the range of 1–2 feet in height, nearly allte collections and rarely published up toe the appendix).81 In this text, statuettes’re in italics when identification is obvious,s for a statuette of George Washington;d on an exemplar; or recorded in contem-iterature. Names supplied by the author aren typeface.butions are best provided by foundrymarks,ast into the statuette’s base, often on the top

finishmuseof brof thfinisharrivcoatinothertransis knoa lacqiationthatCornand a

Othe

Cornettesin prnownamesuchinscrporain ro

Aeithesurfaan atstatu

78

79

in a prCarol A

ecent exception is Donald L. Fennimore, “Cornelius &swer to the Rage for Parlor Sculpture,” Antiques and Finen/Winter 2010): 150–54.

several instances, both types of foundry marks are foundnt copies of a statuette, notably for the Zouave and TheClose observation of examples suggests that plaques ini-applied after casting and letter dies subsequently were

nto the molds, interrupting “grass” on the bases. The op-uence could not have occurred, since there is no evidencel of an inscription from the grassy areas on copies withlso, arguing for this sequence is that cast-in inscriptions


bearingLiberty,ture andGilpatria small sinkwell.

iptdes an Organ Grinder (fig. 17), mate to theeteer; aLaughingMan; aWeccacoe Volunteer Fire-and a small seated figure of a Chinaman.84

Fig. 16.BAKER” (bLaszlo B

7. Cornelius and Baker, Organ Grinder. Mark:ELIU

(CMattausc

would bestamped iin markin

83 Knoon top surLexingtonDeparture aand Bakethe Puppe

Zinc Sta

foundrymarks include aHerald (see fig. 15),a Zouave (fig. 16), the pair of The Depar-The Return, the racehorse Lexington with

inscrincluPuppman,

Cornelius and Baker, Zouave. Mark: “CORNELIUS &ase). Zinc; H. 161/400. (Private collection; photo,odo.)

ck Up, a Joan of Arc, a Knight, a Puppeteer,eated figure of a Fiddler, and anOldMortality83 A smaller group of genre figures bearing

more permanent than attached plaques, and, oncento the molds, a step would also have been eliminatedg the statuettes.wn examples of these statuettes have cast-in inscriptionsfaces of their bases near the center front edges, except forwith Gilpatrick Up, The Return, and some copies of Thend Zouave, which instead have the standard Corneliusr brass plaques soldered to their bases. Lexington andteer are illustrated in Fennimore (ibid.).

84 Th1901 cataheight 131/Clock ComArlington,it seemsmettes haverather thanMann (LDevarannDevarannFireman iWojtowiczAssuranceMutual Asprivate co


ions and now painted with naturalistic paint

S & BAKER” (base). Zinc (modern polychromy); H.ollection of Daniel W. Mattausch and Nancy E.h; photo, D. E. Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution.)

Fig. 1“CORN

11⅛00.

45
e Organ Grinder and its mate the Puppeteer appear in alog of the Ansonia Clock Company as no. 1101 Italians,2 inches, $9 per pair finished in Japanese Bronze. Ansoniapany,Catalogue of the Ansonia Clock Company (1901; repr.,VA: Arlington Book Co., 1988), 157. Given the time lag,ost likely that the Cornelius and Baker and Ansonia statu-a common source, such as a pair of French statuettes,beingmade in the samemolds. Amirror-image Lachender

aughing man) was cast in iron by the Berlin-basede around 1840, illustrated inUweKieling, “SiméonPierree,” Bildende Kunst 32, no. 7 (1984): 326–28, fig. 5. Thes illustrated in Anthony N. B. Garvan and Carol A.,Catalogue of the Green Tree Collection (Philadelphia:MutualCo., 1977), 137–38. Formerly in the collection of thesurance Co., the Weccacoe Volunteer Fireman was sold to allector by the Schwarz Gallery in Philadelphia. An image


Silvery gbeen idrial chanbut has

A fewpany, bThese iaWesterpair ofalso knby WilliaCorneliu

e ondctioin

t thakh

anse

delstct o

of the ChiBook (see nunteer FiremChinamanSince painever, it ha

85 Ththat graceSenate witpaint wastaken fromchandeliecal Study.

86 Bohigh HunAnswer to

46

old-colored paint containing tin flakes hasentified on the zinc decorations of an armo-delier with figures fromaUSSenatehallwaynot otherwise been found on statuettes.85

larger zinc statues were made by the com-ut they seem to have been the exception.nclude a 29-inch-high statue identified asn Hunter and the approximately 3-foot-highstatues of an Indian and Hunter, the latter

Housrespocolleseumabouand Bwhomcompexpo

Fig. 18. USHouse of Representatives clock, statuary moand Indian cast by Cornelius and Baker, 1858; Eagle ca1858. Bronze, H. 4000 (Hunter), 423/400 (Indian). (Archite

own as a Pioneer.86 The pair was modeledm Rinehart and originally cast in bronze bys and Baker for a clock (1858) in the new US

informeparties ihave de

naman also appears in Mitchell, Vance, and Co.’s Picture. 76). The Organ Grinder and probably theWeccacoe Vol-an have cast-in inscriptions, while the LaughingMan andhave the standard Cornelius and Baker brass plaques.t has not been sampled on any of these statuettes, how-s not been confirmed that polychromy is original.e armorial gasolier (acc. no. 59.00002.001), one of threed a Senate hallway, was acquired around 2006 by the UShmost of its original painted finish present. The tin-flakeidentified by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis on a samplean axe; a similar paint appears to have been used on the

r’s crusader figures. Grissom, “Final Report on a Techni-”

th the 29-inch-high Western Hunter and Rinehart’s 3-foot-ter are illustrated in Fennimore’s “Cornelius & Baker’sthe Rage.”

87 ThCo. “Antiqtin, and twrescence azinc (6–7pthan zincstatues initol’s RotuCompositing a ClocCapitol,” rstitute, Waat the Verelbows onbeen sandtrated in F


f Representatives chamber (fig. 18).87 Cor-ence reveals that William F. Walters, whosen forms the nucleus of the Walters Art Mu-Baltimore, queried Montgomery MeigseCapitol’s legal arrangementwithCorneliuser, apparently in defense of Rinehart, fore provided patronage. He wrote that they had “not only duplicated the figures andd them for sale; contrary to what I was

ed byWilliam Rinehart, 1857;Hunterby Archer, Warner, Miskey, and Co.,f the Capitol; photo, Glen Brown.)


d was the understanding with them, butn their place of business representing them,nied the true authenticity of the works and

e Eagle was cast in bronze by Archer, Warner, Miskey, andue bronze” consisting of ninety parts copper, ten partso parts zinc was specified for the clock statues. X-ray fluo-nalysis found approximately equal quantities of tin andercent) on theHunter and slightlymore tin (7–8percent)

(5 percent) on the Indian. Analysis was performed on thetheir exhibit case located in the chamber below the Cap-nda. Carol A. Grissom and Jeff Speakman, “Metallic

ion of a Pioneer and Indian by William Rinehart surround-k Made for the U.S. House of Representatives of the U.S.eport no. 6237, Smithsonian Museum Conservation In-shington, DC, December 1, 2008. Zinc copies of the pairmont State Capitol and in private collections rest theira tree branch in lieu of the clock and would likely havecast on account of their size. A copy of theHunter is illus-ennimore’s “Cornelius & Baker’s Answer to the Rage.”


claimedestablish

Thesourcesproducheld at tthe comularly imand 185“bronzeto imitaferent ““readincases, nsociatedwhich tbeen eluwith aste

A Cograil ofseven C1870s sthem din the 1ette Hivplaced o

88 Wilchitect of

89 A sready in 1pany displAnnual Exthe Promoti1825), 51Institute of(Philadelpa memberport on the

90 Wh“bronze,”with statue“Artistic.”Exhibition,

91 Cotions of thPennsylvaalso repro(Princetonno. 7, ind1875 andbition of 1almost cerconsecutivthe SI cataof the serielocated.Mwith the paing from 27,000 rangpart of a s

Zinc Sta

them as having been originated in theirment.”88

most comprehensive contemporaryof information about Cornelius andBaker’sts are reports and catalogs of exhibitionshe Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, wherepany exhibited from 1825 to 1874.89 Partic-portant are catalogs for exhibitions in 18568, which list thirty-six different subjects in,” almost certainly consisting of zinc paintedte bronze. Among the items are fourteen dif-statues” as well as figurative “light pillars,”g lights,” and “cigar lighters.”90 In manyames listed in the exhibit catalogs can be as-with statuettes and lighting fixtures for

he company’s identification has otherwisesive, although uncertainties remain (notedrisks in the appendix).rnelius and Baker catalog remains the holygas-fixture enthusiasts, but two of at leastornelius and Sons’ catalogs from theurvive, and some statuettes illustrated inate from the time of Cornelius and Baker


850s and 1860s.91 For example, the statu-er illustrated in one of the catalogs wasn brackets at the Vermont State House by

1859 (fFlute omade arand Bakthe US

All sSons’ catures. Tpart ofas “readures weample,made frping inbrass tu

liam F. Walters to Montgomery Meigs, May 27, 1859, Ar-the Capitol records, Washington, DC.ilver lamp made by Christian Cornelius was exhibited al-825 at the Franklin Institute and was followed by a com-ay as early as 1831. Franklin Institute, Report of the Secondhibition of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania, foron of the Mechanic Arts (Philadelphia: Franklin Institute,, and Report of the Seventh Annual Exhibition of the Franklinthe State of Pennsylvania, for the Promotion of theMechanic Artshia: J. Harding, 1831), 17. Robert Cornelius was active asof the board of managers in 1856. Franklin Institute, Re-Twenty-Fifth Exhibition, 5.ile the statues and reading lights are invariably listed aschandeliers, pendants, brackets, and light pillars decoratedttes were available as “bronze,” “gilt,” “verd. Antiq.,” orIbid., 17–18; Franklin Institute, Report on the Twenty-Sixth10–11. See n. 37 for names of statues and reading lights.pies of the two Cornelius and Sons catalogs are in collec-e Smithsonian Institution (SI) and Historical Society ofnia (HSP), both entitled Gas Fixtures; the HSP catalog isduced in Lamps & Other Lighting Devices, 1850–1906, NJ: Pyne, 1972), 20–43. The SI catalog is designatedicating six earlier catalogs; it includes a price list foran illustration of Memorial Hall at the Centennial Exhi-876 on the back cover. The HSP catalog is undated buttainly earlier. The company apparently numbered platesely, ranging in the HSP catalog from 301 to 322 and inlog from 421 to 458; thus, 300 plates from the beginnings and nearly 100 between the two catalogs have not beenost itemnumbers in theHSP catalog are in the 6,000 range,ge of reading lights with statuettes showing numbers rang-,288 to 6,688. Item numbers for the SI catalog are in thee with the exception of one 6,000-range statuette that istandard. The two catalogs do not share any illustrations.

Fig. 19. Top row: Été, Hiver, Samuel de Champlain, andGrecian;and Russn.d., plat

92 Coferred to aInstitute (Sixth ExhibVance, anplates 34,

93 Thdated ca.appears toinches, inpany’s Pict


ig. 19). The statuette named Boy Playingn the same catalog page must have beenound 1863, when it was used on Corneliuser’s chandelier in the President’s Room atCapitol.tatuettes shown in the two Cornelius andtalogs are illustrated as part of lighting fix-he eight statuettes shown in figure 19 aregas table lamps of a type then referred toing lights” or “portables.”92 These lamp fig-re also sold separately as statuettes, for ex-the Herald (see fig. 15). The lamp was

bottom row: Boy Playing Flute, Herald, Knight,ian Hussar. From Cornelius and Sons, Gas Fixtures,e 315. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania.)

47

om the statuette simply by drilling and tap-to the base and bugle for the addition ofbing and a cloth-covered rubber hose.93

rnelius and Baker’s statuette-decorated lamps are re-s reading lights in catalogs of exhibitions at the FranklinReport on the Twenty-Fifth Exhibition, 18;Report on the Twenty-ition, 11). The contemporary gas-fixture companyMitchell,d Co. instead referred to them as portables (Picture Book,51, 75).e hose for a reading light is visible in a historic interior1865. Myers, Gas Lighting, plate 51. The reading lightbe the same as Mitchell, Vance, and Co.’s no. 0242, 14

scribed “THE YOUNG PATRIOT” and illustrated in the com-ure Book, plate 19.


Statuettalog witures atowith deashirt.94

$20.25Cor

lamps wwoodenCorneliture andversionsCorneliculationmay hathat decreadily,holes m

Attrican alswell-doCornelireading(erectedstatuettuette figWilliamCrawfoMinutemSoldier,EloquenWomanas Chrison chanbases, inKenton,

0. C 3 00

cti

94 Plalisted as aand 69966686 is aHussar (sea Falconershirt. Corn

95 Da(Montpel1980), 78Furnitureplate 53. Fto as Colubronze sta1863. Theeagle heastatue. Anbe seen inNew Natioin GrissomState Houof The Dep

48

es illustrated in the Cornelius and Sons’ cat-h the 1875 price list are limited to three fig-p standards: a Knight in armor, a Falconerd fowl, and a Gaul-type figure wearing a furThe standards ranged in price from $15 towithout separate prices for statuettes.nelius and Baker statuettes and readingere apparently sold complete with circularbases, such as those illustrated in the

us and Sons catalog (see fig. 19). The Depar-The Return (fig. 20) show slightly differentof wooden bases from those in the catalog.us and Baker statuettes without bases in cir-today could have lost the original bases or

ve been removed from chandeliers. Thoseorated reading lights can be distinguishedhowever, by brass and rubber tubing orade for attachment of tubing.bution of statuettes to Cornelius and Bakero be made by comparison to figures oncumented lighting fixtures. In particular,us and Baker’s chandeliers, brackets, andlights sold to the Vermont State House1858–59) are a treasure trove of authentic

es. They add to the list of provenienced stat-ures of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin,Penn, Hiram Powers’s Greek Slave, Thomasrd’s Freedom, Giambologna’s Mercury, aan (or GreenMountain Boy), Revolutionary

Hawker (Falconer),Commerce, Science, Prudence,ce, an Indian Maiden, an Oriental Girl, a(nude) with Dove, and a figure identifiedtopher Columbus.95 In a few cases, subjects

Fig. 2(Colle

deliers can be identified by names cast intocluding the Indian known asAmerica, Simonand Prudence (figs. 21 and 22). These three statuett

the Ohibut thestatuettRoom a

photo, D

te 452, no. 7348, a Knight in armor on a standard, is alsovailable with statuettes no. 7350 (plate 387), nos. 6994(plate 359), and nos. 6684 and 6686 (plate 315); no.statuette in the earlier catalog identified as a Russiane fig. 19). The other two statuettes are plate 455, no. 6684,with dead fowl; andplate455, no.7740, aGaul wearing a furelius and Sons, Gas Fixtures.niel Robbins, The Vermont State House: A History and Guideier: Vermont State Historic Preservation Committee,–80; Winslow Ames, “The Vermont Statehouse and Its,” Antiques (August 1965): 200–204; Myers, Gas Lighting,reedom Triumphant in War and Peace, sometimes referredmbia, reflects an early model for Thomas Crawford’stue atop the US Capitol, which was not put in place untilfigure wears a freedom cap, rather than the elaborate

ddress that was substituted for the final version of theother copy of the statuette from a private collection canPamela Scott, Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a

n (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 136, and, Zinc Sculpture, 194. Other statuettes at the Vermontse include Hiver, two copies of the Herald, and the pairarture and The Return.

96 CoTennesseMuseum.installed iScience, Coidentifiedof the origCornelius &J. Q. A.WaOhio. LewSculpture (Copies maorate replBaker chaHouse feacap) was i


es appeared on chandeliers (now lost) ino State Capitol Building during the 1850s,

ornelius and Baker, The Return. Zinc; H. 12/4 .onofDanielW.MattauschandNancyE.Mattausch;. E. Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution.)


ir names can be seen cast into the bases ofes on an 1864 chandelier in the President’st theUSCapitol.96 Among twelve additional

pies of America and a Buffalo made for chandeliers at thee State Capitol in 1855 are now in the Tennessee StateAmerica, Prudence, and Simon Kenton were on gas fixturesn the Ohio State Capitol beginning around 1858, as weremmerce, Liberty, and a large American Eagle. Simon Kenton isas having been placed on the Ohio chandelier “in honorinal settler of that State.” Description of the Establishment ofBaker, 23–24. The Simon Kenton statuette is related to

rd’s plastermodelmade in 1855 for the city of Columbus,is I. Sharp, John Quincy Adams Ward: Dean of AmericanNewark: University of Delaware Press, 1985), 141–43.de from statuettes at the Vermont State House now dec-ica chandeliers at theOhio State Capitol. A Cornelius andndelier in the governor’s office of theMassachusetts Stateturing America, Simon Kenton, and Liberty (with freedomnstalled around the same time and remains there today.


statuetteadditionJuggler,Highland(or Asia

ution toCornelius andBaker based on compar-o known items is notwithout risk, however, since

siderig

SusanGreArt Comm

97 SimPresidentihunter witlisted in thwith Net, aa sheep ov

Zinc Sta

s on the Presidential chandelier are sevens to theCornelius andBaker oeuvre: a Chinese

Attribison t

Fig. 21. Detail of Cornelius and Baker chandelier, Preing America (center), Prudence (left), and Simon Kenton (

a Girl Playing Autoharp, a Dancing Figure,er, Tamborine, a FisherwithNet, andan Indiann) Male with Jug standing on one foot.97

other ga

endyke Lechevre, art collectionsmanager, Massachusettsission, personal communication, May 19, 2010.on Kenton, Prudence, and America are on the top tier of theal Chandelier at the US Capitol. Franklin, Washington, ah a bird in his upraised right hand (probably the “Hawker”e Franklin Institute exhibition’s 1858 catalog), a Fishern Indian (or Asian) with Jug, and aHighlander in a kilt wither his left shoulder are on the second tier. A Putto with

Wheat (Suwith Autohtambourincatalog fortier. As nodole attribplaying tamliers at StaVictorian ARizzoli, 19


nt’s Room, US Capitol, 1864, show-ht). Zinc. (Architect of the Capitol.)


s-fixture companies sold similar statuettes.

mmer?), a Chinese juggler, a naked Dancing Figure, a Girlarp, Boy Playing Flute (see fig. 19), and a putto playing ae (probably the “Tamborine” reading light listed in thethe 1856 Franklin Institute exhibition) are on the third

ted in n. 34, the Putto with Wheat also appears on a giran-uted to Cornelius and Baker and on chandeliers. Puttibourines are also found on a pair of eight-arm chande-

ntonHall (1859) in Natchez, Mississippi. Wendell Garrett,merica: Classical Romanticism to Gilded Opulence (New York:93), 90–91.


Moreovcontinumolds, ato thoseof clock

woug

dent).

98 Seemore likesource, prLe Depart a(ca.1874)copying Frments, 3rd

50

er, Mitchell, Vance, and Co. apparentlyed to cast statuettes in Cornelius and Baker

Taltho

Fig. 22. Detail of Cornelius and Baker chandelier, PresiSimon Kenton (center), America (left), and Prudence (righ

s noted above, and a few statuettes identicalof Cornelius and Baker appear in catalogscompanies as late as 1901.98

have bdesigneCorneliPage, whof gas fix

n. 84 regarding the Organ Grinder and Puppeteer. It isly, however, that clockmakers’ statuettes had a commonobably imported French statuettes. The appearance ofnd Le Retour in a catalog of the clockmaker Seth Thomastends to confirm that clockmakers were importing and/orench statuettes. Tran Duy Ly, Seth Thomas Clocks and Move-ed. ( JohnsonCity, TN: ArlingtonBookCo.,2004),2:1093.

99 JohdevelopmCornelius,Corneliusavailable a


Cornelius and Baker designers are known,h it is unclear to what extent they wouldeen involved with statuettes: the artist-r JohnHenry Frederick Sachse, whomRobert

t’s Room, US Capitol, 1864, showingZinc. (Architect of the Capitol.)


us daguerreotyped in 1840, and Charleso is said to have been the principal designertures from 1844 to 1864.99 Western-themed

n Sachse’s son was Julius F. Sachse, who chronicled theent of daguerreotyping in Philadelphia. Stapp, Robert20, 96–97. A daguerreotype of Sachse made by Robertin 1840 is in the collection of the Library of Congress,t http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g08990/#.


designsGoldsboettes onThe arcson of ahis youtAs the aneo-Goting onhe hadbuilding

Cornqualityand todthere isgeneralpacks, wbe quitefigure ofinishespanying

SubjectsPopular

The cliecannotcords anBaker snineteelike theand weauette owcollectioof Art,

Charles PaCorneliusner of a riPhiladelphi

100 M101 Ge

ca’s First Usity of Penn2000), 50

102 Thfor exhibitthan one htowards peIn color acomparisoTwenty-Fift

103 Ththe statuein 1958.

Zinc Sta

made by the Washington-based Josephrough Bruff in 1859were the basis for statu-chandeliers at the US Treasury Building.100

hitect Thomas W. Richards, the orphanedtailor, worked at Cornelius and Baker inh, although what he did there is unknown.rchitect of the University of Pennsylvania’shic College Hall (1870–73), the first build-its then-new campus in west Philadelphia,the company’s fixtures purchased for the.101

elius and Baker was noted for the highof its workmanship both in its own timeay.102 The statuettes are wellmade, althoughsome variation in quality. The castings arely sharp and have many fine details of back-eapons, and costume. Original coatings canlovely: for example, the bronze finishon the


f Liberty contrasts with imitation-goldon burnished andmatte areas of the accom-

3. C

brass drapery and medallion (fig. 23).

, Sources, and Nineteenth-CenturyCulture

ntele for Cornelius and Baker statuettesbe known directly in the absence of sales re-d examples of identifiable Cornelius and

tatuettes in photographs or illustrations ofnth-century interiors. Exceptional piecesJackson statuettes were acquired bymuseumslthy individuals. For example, a Jackson stat- Fig. 2
ned by WilliamWilson Corcoran, whose artn became Washington’s Corcoran Gallerydescended to his great granddaughter.103
Less cosmiddle-

Chawith zinthe statwealthyBelle McertainlOthers lof Musicapitoland Mapurchasa Benjam$7 in 18

BAKER” (bLaszlo B

ge is identified as having been the principal designer atand Baker for twenty years at the time he became part-val company, Van Kirk and Co. “Copartnership Notices,”a Inquirer, February 19, 1864, 5.yers, Gas Lighting, plates 55–60.orge E. Thomas and David B. Brownlee, Building Ameri-niversity: An Historical and Architectural Guide to the Univer-sylvania (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,.e company’s products are repeatedly extolled in reportsions at the Franklin Institute, such as the following: “Moreundred different specimens … show a marked progressrfection both in artistic design as well as color and finish.nd evenness of tint, the bronzes and verd antiques bearn with the best French.” Franklin Institute, Report on theh Exhibition, 5; Bacot, Nineteenth Century Lighting, 157, 161.e legatee,Mrs. David Finley, along with her husband gavetoAndrew Jackson State Park in Lancaster, SouthCarolina,

104 Ga


tly statuettes may have been purchased forclass homes of modest means.ndeliers and lighting fixtures decoratedc statuettes are better documented thanuettes alone. Some were purchased byAmerican citizens for their homes, likeeade Plantation near Nashville and almosty Stanton Hall in Natchez, Mississippi.104

it important public spaces, like the Academyc in Philadelphia, the US Capitol, and statebuildings in Tennessee, Vermont, Ohio,ssachusetts. Only one domestic record of a

ornelius and Baker, Liberty. Mark: “CORNELIUS &ase). Zinc; H. 183/400. (Private collection; photo,odo.)

51

e fromCornelius andBaker has been found:in Franklin reading light bought at a cost of59 for the Smithsonian Institution’s first

rrett, Victorian America, 90–97.


secretarsomethhead ofclass.

Cluesubjectupper mthat of ofigureslier giraPaul etnovel winkwellon anotlocal insstone scthe entcemeterclude kbig andsuch asthe PuCopieslarger gPowers’Americaand theFranklicompanquicklytures, aTriumpVermonThomaKentonmodelin

In spAmericand parLiberty,cap (seknown“with soFrench

4. Probably French, Le Depart lamp. Zinc; H. 1600.cti, D

105 Fisvol. 2, foldWashingto

106 Casold byDiedle Ages, ELighting, 1

107 Sethe English

108 Se109 W

52

y, Joseph Henry.105 Henry was considereding of a penny-pincher, but he was the firstthe institution and solidly upper middle

s about clientele are provided by statuettes’matter, which is largely standard middle- toiddle-class fare of the period, similar tother lighting manufacturers.106 A few zinc

refer to literature, as did the company’s ear-ndoles decorated with the romantic figuresVirginie, made popular by the eponymousritten by Sir Walter Scott. An Old Mortalityfigure made of zinc, for example, was basedher Scott novel of the same name. A morepiration, however, may have been the largeulpture of Old Mortality erected in 1836 atrance to Philadelphia’s premiere parklikey, Laurel Hill. Other romantic subjects in-nights in armor, perennial favorites of boyssmall.107 A few genre figures were made,the Organ Grinder with his monkey andppeteer noted in the previous section.of antique and neoclassical statues form aroup that includes statuettes after Hirams Greek Slave and Giambologna’s Mercury.n subjects such as Liberty, Indians, a buffalo,famous American citizens Washington,

n, and William Penn are common. They was able to put new lines into productionin response to noteworthy public sculp-s, for example, the statuette of Freedomhant in War and Peace (Columbia) at thet State Capitol soon after its modeling bys Crawford for the US Capitol, and Simonfor the Ohio State Capitol shortly after itsg by J. Q. A. Ward.108

ite of the variety of statuettes, many withan subjects, nearly all had Europeanticularly French precedents. The figure offor example, bears the French-style libertye fig. 23). Even the statuette of an Indian

Fig. 2(Collephoto

as America was said to have been copiedme changes of raiment from a commonbronze” (see fig. 21).109 Moreover, evidence

suggestswere couettes wand “LEbeen thmade bEnglish“THE DEP

and Amlines, inwere tametal mlines a

cal records, June 1856–December 1859, p. 127, no. 212,er 1, box 1, RU 110, Smithsonian Institution Archives,n, DC.tegories defined for girandoles and other lighting fixturestz andCo. in 1860 include classical, Eastern exotica,Mid-lizabethan, Scottish, Indian, and literary figures.Victorian2–16.e, e.g., Mark Girouard, The Return to Camelot: Chivalry andGentleman (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1981).e nn. 95, 96.olff, Capitol Builder, 280.


that zinc statuettes imported from Francepied by Cornelius and Baker. A pair of stat-ith the French names “LE DEPART” (fig. 24)RETOUR” cast into their bases appear to havee models for an essentially identical pairy Cornelius and Baker, who added a cast-in-language label around each base, inscribedARTURE” (fig. 25) and “THE RETURN.” Frencherican versions exhibit different partingdicating that molds for the American pair

onofDanielW.MattauschandNancyE.Mattausch;. E. Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution.)


ken from the French statuettes and newolds made for slush casting. The parting

re more difficult to see on the French


versionqualityin Parisand Hiv

Theand insence oof prodever, prettes. Amost codian), tand a Z

it wriclaris nngg v-shepaoms phevet dimedbyYoraHthldeS Sd basaruchlloredplf aep112

on circum.geadntereitinheategory of serial sculpture—the casting ofples—which became popular in many mediag the nineteenth century. Such sculpture

Fig. 25. Cornelius and Baker, The Departure. Mark:“CORNELIU

00

Daniel WD. E. Hu

110 Twdian), andone privatis in a seco

is unmarked but is believed to have been made by the com-third pair appears on light fixtures in theHouse chamber at

Zinc Sta

, consistent with the exceptionally high-bronze molds produced by art foundries. Other Cornelius statuettes, such as Étéer, retain French names.fact that most statuettes are unpublishedprivate collections, in addition to the ab-f company sales records, makes assessmentuction levels difficult. The appendix, how-ovides some indication of surviving statu-part from the Jackson statuette, among the

a rooto theing rarounin coas thein Vis

Tthe cmultidurin

S & BAKER” (base). Zinc; H. 131/4 . (Collection of. Mattausch and Nancy E. Mattausch; photo,rlbert, Smithsonian Institution.)

Returnpany. A

mmonly encountered are America (an In-he pair of The Departure and The Return,ouave.110 While all are likely of French ori-

o autograph copies each of the Zouave, America (an In-The Departure, as well as one copy of The Return are in

e collection. Another pair of The Departure and The Returnnd collection: The Departure is marked, while its mate The

the Vermo111 Fr

and Report112 W

American113 Ha

1971), plaCorneliuschamber a


as almost certainly their connection toan events and concerns that made them. The theme of America portrayed as an In-ot surprising. Along with its perennially ap-before-and-after images of a long-hairedagabond leaving home and coming back aaven, close-cropped veteran, the pair ofrture and The Return tapped into the themeas Cole’s well-known romantic 1837 epon-aintings featuring a medieval knight. Prob-more important factor in their popularity,r, was the American Civil War, which norew people to purchase war-related figures.ilar reasons, purchasers were probably at-to the Zouave, whose exotic costume wasmilitary companies in Philadelphia andk. Cornelius and Baker’s Zouave was pairedighlander in Franklin Institute displays, pos-e kilted figure with a lamb around itsrs found on the Presidential chandelier atenate.111Onewould expect that the Zouavee paired with a military figure, however,a member of the Highlander regiment thatt of the 79th New York Volunteer Infantry,a statuette has not surfaced.wing the tradition set by the girandolesceded them,many statuettes were likely dis-on mantle pieces. They might also haveaced on side tables or brackets, like a statu-SirWalter Raleigh–type figure in the parlorh Henry, the first secretary of the Smithso-Figural lamps, however, were often placedlar tables below chandeliers at the center ofIn this way, their hoses could be connectedas in the chandelier overhead, while provid-ding or working light for a family seatedthe table. Such lamps are seen, for example,mporary photographs and paintings, suchading light featuring Giambologna’sMercuryg Grandma by J. A. S. Oertel (1865).113

Cornelius and Baker statuettes fit within

53

gin,AmepopudianpealiyouncleanThe Dof Thymouably thowedoubFor stractwornNewwithsiblyshoutheUwoulsuchwas pbut s

Fothat pplayebeenette oof Josnian.


nt State House.anklin Institute, Report on the Twenty-Fifth Exhibition, 18,on the Twenty-Sixth Exhibition, 11.illiam Seale, Recreating the Historic House Interior (Nashville:Association for State and Local History, 1979), 170, 171.rold L. Peterson,Americans at Home (New York: Scribner’s,te 126. A pair of identical Mercury reading lights withand Baker plaques are on the clerk’s desk in the Senatet the Vermont State House today.


rangeditineranImage Peto the hbronzeBarye, aettes ofsomewhstatuettthe parsumablmatelyplasterthe CivCorneliEuropein additvidual fHenry’suette ofprice lothe maj

Usesistent wing thismateriaThe Roto imitawas widAges. Athe ninerange obe usedwere paOpera, scelluloireplacemâchéand woo

Finastatuettonly in lthe ninthe lateJ. Q. A.

df

by-Ginrebeen affordable only by the wealthy. Saint-enffan

De

69d afold,reovt fthbeasetins cpa(f

blethe118

ee

eveogsnbert inonanges in taste, which may have reduced pro-on sufficiently that they were no longer profit-to make.

114 ThSociety, isWassermabridge,Msculpture.

115 “C116 Ar

and 1890Rogers’s AWinterthur

54

from the low-cost plaster statuettes sold byt salesmen depicted in the painting of Thedlar by Francis W. Edmonds (ca. 1850–58)igh-end serial sculptures in marble andby Jean-Antoine Houdon, Antoine-Louisnd Augustus Saint-Gaudens.114 The statu-Cornelius and Baker would seem to fitere in the middle, although imported zinces were said to have found “their way intolors of the wealthy and the good.”115 Pre-y, they would have appealed to approxi-the same group as the far more populargroups of John Rogers that appeared afteril War, although the subject matter ofus and Baker statuettes tended to be morean, less original, and generally less folksy;ion, Cornelius and Baker made only indi-igures, rather than figural groups. If JosephFranklin reading light cost $7 in 1859, a stat-Franklin would have cost less, making itswer than the more complex Rogers groups,ority of which sold for $10–$15.116of zinc as an imitative material was also con-ith the explosion of imitativematerials dur-time period. Simulation of more expensivels has been done since time immemorial.mans made wide use of architectural stuccote sculpted marble, for example, and brassely used to imitate gold during the Middledvances in science and technology duringteenth century, however, produced a widef new materials and techniques that couldto imitate older ones. Copper electrotypestinated to imitate bronze statues at the Parisilver platingwas used to simulate solid silver,d was made to imitate ivory, synthetic dyesd traditional vegetal dyes, and papier-and plaster were painted to imitate marbled.lly, zinc statuettes filled a desire for bronzees. True bronze statuettes were producedimited numbers in theUnited States during

reproend ouesSaintcastventuhaveGaudat Ti

The

In 18solvewereArnohis thwas mStreepiedhavebut,markcastlightcom1874of tathe ofifty!can bthe CHowcatalelevenumteresettesof chductiable

eteenth century. A few were made during1840s at Henry Kirke Brown’s studio, andWard’s statuette of The Indian Hunter was

e painting, in the collection of the New-York Historicalillustrated in Peterson (ibid., plate 90). See Jeanne L.n, ed.,Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture (Cam-A:HarvardUniversity Press, 1975) for discussions of serial

heap Art.”ound 100,000Rogers sculptures were sold between 1860. Michael Clapper, “Imagining the Ordinary: Johnnticlassical Genre Sculptures as Purposely Popular Art,”Portfolio 43 (Spring 2009): 1–40.

117 CCorneliusson-in-lawManufactu

118 ACorneliusthe Librarthe illustr

119 AExhibitio(c022295libwww.freGas Lighti


uced after 1860, but it was not until thethe century that reductions of life-size stat-Frederick MacMonnies and Augustusaudens (such as the Puritan andDiana) werebronze as significant revenue-producings for artists. These bronzes, however, would


s’s reductions, for example, were marketedy and Co. in New York City.

mise of Cornelius and Baker

, the Cornelius and Baker partnership dis-s the Bakers retired, and two companiesrmed: Cornelius and Sons and Baker,and Co. The former consisted of Robert,e sons, and a son-in-law. The showroomed from 710 Chestnut Street to the Cherryactory, while Baker, Arnold, and Co. occu-e former showroom.117 No zinc statuettesen located inscribed Cornelius and Sons,noted above, the company continued toCornelius and Baker statuettes, apparentlytheir molds. Twenty-four figural readingan be discerned decorating just half theny’s display at the Franklin Institute inig. 26). An approximately equal numberlamps with statuettes can be counted onr half of the display—for a total of aroundAbout a dozen reading lights with figuresseen in the company’s smaller display atntennial Exhibition two years later.119r, the fact that the two Cornelius and Sonsissued around this time show a total of onlystatuettes, nearly all with lower catalogs than chandeliers, suggests diminished in-statuettes by the 1870s. Demand for statu-chandeliers no doubt lessened on account

ornelius and Sons consisted of Robert’s sons Robert C., John C. Cornelius, and Charles E. Cornelius and hisCharles Blakiston Jr. Robson, The Manufactories andrers, 511.second stereophotograph that shows the entire display ofand Sons at the Franklin Institute is in the collection ofy Company of Philadelphia, but its focus is not as sharp asation reproduced here.photograph of Cornelius and Sons’ display at theCentennialn is in the Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection) at the Free Library of Philadelphia, accessible at http://elibrary.org/CenCol/. It is also reproduced in Myers,ng, plate 74.


https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showLinks?doi=10.1086%2F665364&system=10.1086%2F597172&citationId=p_n_124

Cornward thand histised lesican GasYork–baplace inat the Cof Mitchfully methat ofCompan

rne menfivrano

firmany dakeelio

st1D &nsgngreae ah’som76 but did not continue for long thereafter, be-

ing last.125

ixt

gdeh be m; aodsimn z

Fig. 26.Sons disp1874. (L

120 Envol. 133, pHistorical

121 Adthe Philaderadically iThey reapthe firm devery issueCorneliusno longerBaker, Arnthe America1862, exceand Sons

122 BaBaker alontennial Co

Zinc Sta

elius and Sons seems to have lost steam to-e end of Robert Cornelius’s involvementretirement in 1877.120 The company adver-s often in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Amer--Light Journal than previously, and two Newsed firms usurped the company’s premierethe pantheon of gas-fixture manufacturersentennial Exhibition in 1876.121 The displayell, Vance, and Co. was said to have “most

1878

Gas-F

DurinPhilawhicin th1859Its prturesknow

James Cremer, stereocard of Cornelius andlay, Franklin Institute Exhibition, Philadelphia,ibrary Company of Philadelphia.)

t the approval of the Judges,” followed bythe Archer and Pancoast Manufacturingy.122 The rapid demise of manufacturing

An Eagland Cotion witand Bakclock intry forCornelius andBaker, January6,1877, Philadelphia,

. 266 a/11, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Baker LibraryCollections, Harvard Business School.vertisements for Cornelius and Baker first appeared inlphia Inquirer onDecember 18, 1863, and continued spo-n 1864, probably on account of the ongoing Civil War.peared frequently in late 1868 and early 1869. Afterissolved in 1869, Cornelius and Sons advertised in nearlyuntil the end of 1871, when it ceased altogether. Theand Sons advertisements invariably note that there isa store on Chestnut Street, premises then occupied byold, and Co. Advertisements for the company appeared inn Gas-Light Journal only from December 1, 1859, throughpt for nearly half-page notices at the inception of Corneliuson August 16, 1870, and October 17, 1870.ker, Arnold, and Co., the other offshoot of Cornelius andgwithCornelius and Sons, wasmentioned third. USCen-mmission, “General Report of the Judges of Group XIV,”

in InternaPrinting Oabout Mittroduction

123 M124 “G

Co., Philad125 A

nial Exhib(c021782)libwww.fre

126 Wton, DC: Ndonated to


elius and Sons in Philadelphia is indicatedanufacturing schedule compiled by the

sus office for Philadelphia in 1880: it listse employees for the company, reflectingsfer of manufacturing to Mitchell, Vance,. in New York around 1878 (see table 1).became Cornelius and Hetherington in

d Cornelius and Rowland in 1888 beforeissolving in 1900.123

r, Arnold, and Co., the other offshoot ofus and Baker, occupied the former show-f Cornelius and Baker on Chestnut by870.124 A few zinc statuettes inscribed “BAKER.CO./ PHILADELPHIA” are known in private col-

, making clear that the company continuedin zinc. Theatrical themes were popular, in-the actor E. A. Sothern dressed as Lordry in Our American Cousin (1858) and J. S.s Toodles, a role he performed at Edwintheater in the eponymous play in 1870.pany exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition

55

listed in McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory in

ure Competitors

the 1840s, Cornelius and Sons’ chief rival inlphia was the firm of Archer and Warner,ecame Archer, Warner, Miskey, and Co.id-1850s; Warner, Miskey, and Merrill in

nd Miskey, Merrill, and Thackera in 1867.uction included chandeliers and other fix-ilar to Cornelius and Baker’s, but its onlyinc work of art is a bust of Patrick Henry.126e cast in bronze by Archer, Warner, Miskey,. seems to have been made in competi-

at Coby thUS Conlythe tand CThe1886finall

BCornroomAuguARNOL

lectiocastincludiDundClarkBootThe cin 18


h the Hunter and Indian cast by Corneliuser for the same House of Representatives’1858 (see fig. 18). Moreover, the firm’s

tional Exhibition, 1876 (Washington, DC: Governmentffice, 1880), 5:649. Additional laudatory comments

chell, Vance, and Co. are cited in Denys Peter Myers’s in-to Mitchell, Vance, and Co.’s Picture Book, iv, v.

yers, Gas Lighting, plate 74.as Fixtures, &c.,” advertisement for Baker, Arnold, andelphia Inquirer, August 23, 1870, 8.photograph of Baker and Arnold’s display at the Centen-ition is in the Centennial Exhibition Digital Collectionat the Free Library of Philadelphia, accessible at http://elibrary.org/CenCo.illiam Kloss, Art in the White House: A Nation’s Pride (Washing-ational Geographic Society, 1992), 352. The bust wasthe White House by Mrs. William S. “Babe” Paley.


French-modelebronzein 1858show itsof Corn

TwoArcherMitchelCorneliwhere ttions foproductments r1880, wphia antable 2)

Theseems tand SonCorneliat ArchefromCoPhiladeArcher,Pancoapany’s pbeen redards wliers at tIn anunSir Walbearer a

redgaitchewotirosin

al dit pfoes78onogoel

e ct ts an anettabenornfort b cause of its proximity in New York during87 s to the American Clock Co., which servedag nt for the Connecticut clockmakers.136

127 Inand MerrCorneliusPhiladelphDC.

128 Soper alloys,Exhibitiontures as “bthe compCentenniAdams, Asimitationdomesticzinc. Ashe

129 Arnut in Bawhile Cortration arephia and H

130 Thfacturing(October

131 Phand Adam

56

born sculptor and founder Edmond Baudind the beautiful and elaborately sculptedrailings for the staircases at the US Capitol–59. Nevertheless, census records in 1860total sales at only about one-quarter thoseelius and Baker.127New York–based lighting companies—and Pancoast Manufacturing Co. andl, Vance, and Co.—had connections withus and Baker and seem to have taken overhe company left off in making zinc decora-r gas fixtures.128 Census records show thation of New York City gas-fixture establish-ose to more than $2.5 million in value inhile dropping to $400,000 in Philadel-d to just $5,500 at Cornelius and Sons (see.Archer and Pancoast Manufacturing Co.o have been a competitor of Corneliuss. Ellis P. Archer surely knew the work ofus and Baker from his days in Philadelphiar andWarner, located just three doors awayrnelius andBaker’s showroom.129 Archer leftlphia for New York in 1859, first formingPancoast, and Co. and then Archer and

st Manufacturing Co. by 1868.130 The com-roduction of statues in zinc seems to havelatively limited, but a pair of knights on stan-as displayed by the company among chande-heCentennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.131

featuon ci

Mwas tthe tan enthe mtisingJourntent,Sonsand din 18ducticatalthoseMitchcludaboumentare aknowstatuprobconcof CCo.’sin pathe 1as an

dated catalog from the 1870s, polychromedter Raleigh–type figures and a female vaseppear on newel lights. A bronzed putto is

1860, the annual value of products for Warner, Miskey,ill was listed as $225,000, compared to $1,000,000 forand Baker. US Census, Manufacturing Schedule foria, 1860, accessed at the National Archives, Washington,

me fixtures sold by these companies were made of cop-but less expensive items were cast in zinc. A Centennialreport describes Mitchell, Vance, and Co.’s bronze fix-oth real and spelter,” while Asher and Adams describesany’s products as “both Real and Imitation Bronze.” USal Commission, “General Report,” 6:684; Asher andher and Adams Pictorial Album, 133. Archer and Pancoast’s-bronze manufacture is attributed to the inception ofzinc smelting in 1860, which likely reduced the cost ofr and Adams, Asher and Adams Pictorial Album, 49.cher, Warner, Miskey, and Co. is pictured at 718 Chest-xter’s Panoramic Business Director of Philadelphia for 1859,nelius and Baker is at 710 Chestnut. Copies of this illus-found in collections at the Library Company of Philadel-istorical Society of Pennsylvania.e company is listed as the Archer and Pancoast Manu-Co. in an advertisement in American Gas-Light Journal 1016, 1868): 121.illip T. Sandhurst, Industrial and Fine Arts, 291, 293; Ashers, Asher and Adams Pictorial Album, 49.

132 ARoom at thin Myers,

133 Asvertisemebiweekly Ano. 113), iThey reap(vol.10, nappearedvertisemeCornelius

134 Se135 Sa

featuringandCo.: afigure flanDiana (28clock (28topped byto the cloappears oAsher andfive additioCompanymovemenNew YorkLibrary H

136 Thveyed cloc


on a standard, and smaller figures appearr lighters.132

hell, Vance, and Co., established in 1860,larger and apparently more successful ofNew York companies. Its factory took upe Manhattan block, and the company wast consistent of gas-fixture companies adver-the New York–based American Gas-Lighturing the 1860s and 1870s.133 To some ex-layed the role of successor to Cornelius andllowing its acquisition of “all the patternsigns” when the firm ceased manufacturingand its agreement to continue their pro-. As noted above, the company’s ca. 1877illustrates a number of statuettes similar tof Cornelius and Baker.134 In the 1870s,l, Vance, and Co. expanded products to in-locks, which are illustrated in literaturehe company and for which it made move-s well as statuettes.135 Decorations for clocksrea into which Cornelius and Baker is notto have ventured, although the company’ses would have been suitable for them. Thele reason is that clock production was stilltrated in Connecticut during the heydayelius and Baker. Mitchell, Vance, andray into this business no doubt occurred


py of the undated catalog can be seen in the Print StudyMetropolitanMuseum of Art. A few pages are reprinteds Lighting, plates 81, 83, and 85–86.er and Adams, Asher and Adams Pictorial Album, 85. Ad-s for Mitchell, Vance, and Co. appeared regularly in theerican Gas-Light Journal from October 15, 1860 (vol. 2,to 1864 and sporadically from 1865 through June 1867.eared in every issue of the journal from January 2, 1869201) through1879. Archer andPancoast advertisementsrratically from 1868 through 1875. See n. 121 for ad-s in the journal placed by Cornelius and Baker andnd Sons.n. 76.dhurst’s Industrial and Fine Arts illustrates seven clocksnc mounts and statuettes displayed by Mitchell, Vance,latively plain clock (145) and clocks topped by a femaleed by putti and accompanied by a pair of urns (280),), Art (283), a bust of Shakespeare (285), Nike on a wall), and Vanity (287); a pedestal with classical reliefsvase is also illustrated (288). An illustration identicalon page 280 in Sandhurst’s Industrial and Fine Arts

the page describing the American Clock Company indams (Asher and Adams Pictorial Album, 85), which featuresal clocks with zinc figures. Records of the R. G. Dun andote that Mitchell, Vance, and Co. also made wall-clock. Entry for Mitchell, Vance, and Co., April 2, 1872,

e0e

coe

Gahntmnpo.entaenzirek26acknAnnts
, vol. 323, p. 842, R. G. Dun & Co. Collection, Bakeristorical Collections, Harvard Business School.e relatively short-lived American Clock Company pur-ks in New York for Connecticut clockmakers such as Seth

In adfirms selarger scount ocast, indards ePhiladeis that bfor zincand Tru

Change

Duringdécor feture fit wof Cornstyle conever, neable, andecoraGas-fixt

Thomas anVance, an581 Broad597 Broad

137 Thlustrated iIndian Waand Co. ccover; theMetropolibe seen inAdams,Aslights is inPA, as welArt: Shopand Howepost figurThey are“the Bronthe Frencment for M1872), 616

138 MLincoln (1tor, but itcopies ofof the 187ed. Alber1981), 30(1872) froand incorthe first fi1896): A C(PhD dissstatue receGurney, dpersonal c

Zinc Sta

dition to statuettes, both New York–basedem to have produced many more statues ofize than did Cornelius and Baker. On ac-f their size, they were almost certainly sandcluding a pair of life-size Indian stan-xhibited at the Centennial Exhibition inlphia (fig. 27).137 An interesting footnote


othNew York companies purchasedmodels
statues from sculptors Olin Levi Warnerman H. Bartlett.138
in Style

the 1850s, romantic neorococo interioraturing elaborately decorated Belter furni-ithmultifigured chandeliers and statuetteselius and Baker, and to some extent thistinued into the 1860s. In the 1870s, how-o-Grec and Eastlake styles became fashion-
d only the odd neoclassical griffin or similartions interrupted their geometric lines.ure catalogs issued from the 1870s onward
Fig. 27. MH. 8200 toand FineOther In1879), 1

dSons,which retailed someof the sameclocks asMitchell,d Co. In 1876, Mitchell, Vance, and Co. was located atway, while the American Clock Company was close by atway.e Indian Warrior and its mate, an Indian Queen, are il-n Mitchell, Vance, and Co.’s Picture Book, plate 57. Therrior is the only statue illustrated in a Mitchell, Vance,atalog entitled Centennial 1776 (1876), decorating itscatalog can be seen in the Print Study Room at the

tanMuseumof Art. Images of the IndianWarrior can alsoSandhurst’s Industrial and Fine Arts, 142, and in Asher andher and Adams Pictorial Album, 85. An IndianQueenwithoutthe collection of the Merritt Museum in Douglassville,l as a private collection. Ralph Sessions, The Shipcarvers’and Cigar Store Figures in America (Ann Arbor, MI: Bellll Information and Learning Co., 2000), fig. 90. Neweles sold by these companies measure 3–4 feet in height.likely copies of French statues, since it was noted thatzes, especially the large pieces which are copied fromh, are the best productions of the country.” Advertise-itchell, Vance, and Co., Harper’s Weekly, suppl. (August 3,.itchell, Vance, and Co. purchased a statuette of Abraham877) by Truman H. Bartlett (1835–1923) from the sculp-has not been found in the company’s catalogs, and noit have been located. Anne Pingeot, “The Paris Salons0s: Entries for Exhibited Works,” in Rodin Rediscovered,t E. Elsen (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art,9–10. Archer and Pancoast purchased a figure of Maym Olin Levi Warner (1844–1896) for casting in zincporation in a lamp. Warner was to get $5 for each offty copies. George Gurney, “Olin Levi Warner (1844–atalogue Raisonné of his Sculpture and Graphic Works”., University of Delaware, 1978), 262–67. A copy of thently turned up in a private collection in Nevada. Georgeeputy chief curator, Smithsonian American Art Museum,ommunication, October 20, 2005.


itchell, Vance, and Co., Indian Warrior. Zinc;

57

burners. From Phillip T. Sandhurst, IndustrialArts of the World: As Shown at the Philadelphia andternational Exhibitions (Philadelphia: Ziegler,42.


limitedcigar liglightingover zinzinc’s teand thistill hadply gas,liers, byAs a resueasier tmetal m

Gasbecametury. Duelaborainteriorrenniallor finalwhat waera waswartimeoccurreparts ofconverteof origining thegrace thdeliers,houses

Finaterial imthe dement timeof plainas iron,felt by

s aenfor the decoration of clocks and simplerenry

lus

elres aettbaf adroctsr rRoe. Nart oaovedrarelaszepankinto

139 M

58

figures to a few table lamps, standards, andhters. Brass became dominant again forfixtures, perhaps because its advantagesc were better recognized. On account ofndency to crack, the elaborately decoratedckly cast trough-type arms of zinc fixturesto be fitted with brass tubing to reliably sup-creating redundancy. Brass arms of chande-contrast, could be trusted to transport gas.lt, brass chandeliers would likely have beeno make, and the resulting reduction ofeant that they could be lighter in weight.139

chandeliers became obsolete as electricityavailable at the end of the nineteenth cen-ring the first half of the twentieth century,tely decorated chandeliers failed to matchs of houses built in the craftsman, the pe-y popular federal, the clean-lined art deco,ly the minimalist modernist style. Much ofs considered the geegaws of the Victoriantaken to the junkyard or collected duringscrap-metal drives. The principal exceptionsd in more conservative and impoverishedthe country, where gas fixtures were insteadd to electricity. Even after the replacemental fixtures at the Vermont State House dur-1960s, many were carefully stored and nowe building again. A number of original chan-now electrified, continue to light plantationin the deep South.lly, the decline in the desirability of onema-itating another may have contributed toise of zinc: “It is a good sign that at the pres-the national taste is setting in the direction

shamationever,elemcentu

Conc

Cornfixtu1850statuHorseues ocopiedardsubjeneveJohncativserveas paa newthe npaintdull gto bedle c“bronken,and uceedettes

metal work. Brass is finished as brass, ironcopper as copper, showing the repugnancepeople advancing in artistic taste to the

culturalin its ow

yers, Gas Lighting, plate 63.

140 ThUnited Sta(London:


nd paints and varnishes which a past gener-dured.”140 Zinc continued to be used, how-


ts of ordinary lamps well into the twentieth.

ion

ius and Baker, the most influential gas-company in the United States during thend 1860s, also produced high-quality zinces, such as Clark Mills’s Andrew Jackson onck and William Rinehart’s 3-foot-high stat-Hunter and Indian. Other statuettes were

from French models but featured the stan-mantic, neoclassical, and heroic Americansalable by a commercial enterprise. Theyeached the popularity of contemporarygers’s groups and were imitative and repli-onetheless, the company’s statuettes de-

place in the history of American metalworkf an interesting development in technology:pplication of the slush-casting technique toel metal zinc. The statuettes were always, since the metal itself is an uninterestingy, but imitation-bronze paint allowed manygarded as bronzes. Thus, the Americanmid-s was provided with relatively inexpensive” statuettes for the first time. By the same to-int effectively rendered the metal invisiblenown. It is hoped that this article will suc-bringing many more examples of zinc statu-light, making this little-known art form and
phenomenonmore visible and appreciatedn right.
e writer was English, but the sentiment applied in thetes as well. ArthurH.Hiorns,Metal-Colouring and BronzingMacmillan, 1892), 13.


Table A1Cornelius statuettes

Statuette

TNCapitol(1855)

Franklincatalog(1857)


US CapitolSenate

chandeliers(1858)

OHCapitol(1858)

VTCapitol(1859)

US CapitolPres.

chandelier(1863)

C&Scatalog (HSP)w/price list(1875)

C&Scatalog (SI)(ca. 1876)

Mitchell,Vancecatalog

(ca. 1878)

Private/museumcollections

America (Indian), H. 221/200

(fig. 21)xx x x xxxx

Andrew Jackson on Horseback,H. 2′ (fig. 10)

20+

Antique rlArmor (fig. 9) ch rl, ch x* x*Barge of Cleopatra brBenjamin Franklin rl, ch xx x #0108 xBoy Playing Flute (fig. 19) x #4330Brigand rlBuffalo x stCastellated brChinese Juggler xChinese (seated), H. 5⅞00 ch rl #0534 x* x*Christopher Columbus xCommerce x xDancing Figure ch x*Departure (p/w Return),H. 131/400, 131/200 (fig. 25)

rl, st x xxxx

Eagle br x* x*Eloquence xElizabethian [sic] br, chÉté (Summer; fig. 19) #4936Falconer (or Hawker) #6684Fiddler (seated) xFireman br, st, ch xFisher with Net xFreedom Triumphant in Warand Peace, after ThomasCrawford

x x

Gaul #7740George Washington rl xx xGirl Playing Autoharp xGlobe and Books stGrecian (fig. 19) rl #5684

Appendix

ZincStatuettes

ofCornelius

andBaker

59


Table A1—Continued

Statuette

TNCapitol(1855)



US CapitolSenate

chandeliers(1858)

OHCapitol(1858)

VTCapitol(1859)

US CapitolPres.

chandelier(1863)




(ca. 1878)


Greek Slave, afterHiram Powers

xxxx

Griffin br, chHawker (or Falconer) rl xx* x* #078Herald, H. 123/800

(figs. 15, 19)rl x #2288 #0112

#0968xx

Highlander (p/w Zouave) br, ch, st st x*Hiver (Winter; fig. 19) x #4934 #0838Horse Grooming xHorse Prior stHunter, Western, H. 2900 ch x*Hunter, Rinehart(p/w Indian),H. 401/200 (cf. fig. 18)

rl st x x

Indian, Rinehart (p/wHunter), H. 3′ (cf. fig. 18)

rl, st x x

Indian (or Asian) Malewith Jug

x

Indian Maiden xJoan of Arc, H. 161/400 xKnight (fig. 19) rl #5678* #0882*Knight, H. 111/200 rl x*Knight rlLaughing Man, H. 63/400, 700 xxLaughing Satyr, Antique brLexington with GilpatrickUp, H. 131/200

x

Liberty, with freedom capand Washington relief,H. 183/400 (fig. 23)

x* xx

Mercury, afterGiambologna

ltp, st xxx #0962#1550

xxxx

Minuteman (GreenMountain Boy)

xx

Morning ltpNight ltpOld Man clOld Mortality, H. 5⅛00 x

x

Winterthur

Portfolio46:1

60


Table A1—Continued

Statuette

TNCapitol(1855)



US CapitolSenate

chandeliers(1858)

OHCapitol(1858)

VTCapitol(1859)

US CapitolPres.

chandelier(1863)




(ca. 1878)


Organ Grinder, H.11⅛00 (fig. 17)

Oriental Girl xPage rlPrudence (p/w Science ;figs. 21, 22)

br x x

Puppeteer, H. 1200 xPutto with Wheat (Summer?) xRenaissance Courtier #7348Return (p/w Departure),H. 121/400, 123/400 (fig. 20)

rl, st x xx

Revolutionary Soldier xx #098Richard Coeur de Lion(Crusader?)

rl x* x*

Richmond rl x*Russian Hussar (fig. 19) st #6686*Samuel de Champlain(fig. 19)

#3346

Science (p/w Prudence) br x x*Simon Kenton (figs. 21, 22) x x xStag st br #0902*Standard Bearer rl x*Tamborine rl x* x*Warrior ch 3 rlWilliam Penn xWater Carrier rlWoman (nude) with Dove xxZouave (p/w Highlander),H. 161/400 (fig. 16)

st st xx

Note.—Names in italics are confirmed by recognizable features (e.g., George Washington), contemporary literature, or an inscription on the statuette; those in roman type are assignedby the author. Asterisks indicate uncertainty for examples named but not illustrated in the literature. Abbreviations: HSP = Historical Society of Pennsylvania, SI = Smithsonian Institution,x = a known example, rl = reading light, st = statue, br = bracket, ch = chandelier, ltp = light pillar, cl = cigar lighter, p/w = paired with.

ZincStatuettes

ofCornelius

andBaker

61
