Capturing the World in Bronze

 

QUESTION: Recently, I attended an antique show where one of the dealers had a modest collection of what he called Vienna bronzes. These little sculptures of mostly animals were like nothing I had ever seen. The prices of these bronzes seemed a bit high. What can you tell me about these little bronzes? How old are they, who made them, and did they really come from Vienna, Austria?

ANSWER:  Vienna bronzes are antique bronzes made by artists from Vienna. They became popular in the 1850s. Known for their extremely great detail, many were painted in beautiful colors. Many of the bronzes took the form of animals, such as dogs,, cats, pigs, and foxes.. Though Vienna bronzes come in all sizes, but are most popular with collectors in the smaller sizes due to their high cost. 

Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, but it can also be an alloy of copper and another metal. The word “bronze” originated from the Latin Word “Aes Brundisium” = ore from Brindisi, and came via Italian and French into the German language.

Franz Bergman, a professional chaser from Gablonz who came to Vienna, founded a small bronze foundry in 1860. It later became one of the most famous of the Vienna bronze factories under the leadership of his son, Franz Xavier Bergman, who based many of his designs on ones from his father's workshop.

The younger Bergman was an artist who became well known for the many sculptures produced at his foundry in Vienna. He inherited the foundry from his father but had such success with his work that he opened a second one in 1900. Often referred to as a sculptor by historians, Franz Xavier Bergman was actually a designer who hired other sculptors to carry out his ideas. He had his designs made in bronze and cold painted with many layers of vivid colors. The majority of his figural sculptures for sale featured Arab subjects, animals, mythological creatures, and figures in erotic poses.

He expanded the production by adding Art Nouveau objects, seals, and erotica. Bergman disguised sensuous poses of young women in the Art Nouveau style by a covering that revealed all when the viewer pushed a button or moved a lever. Often carefully sculpted animals, such as bears, could be opened to reveal an erotic figure inside. To avoid punishment by immorality laws  for his erotic sculptures, he signed them with either the letter “B” in an urn-shaped cartouche or produced them under the pseudonym Nam Greb—the name Bergman backwards. 

Franz Xavier’s son, Fritz, graduated from the Vienna Art Polytechnic Institute and took over the company in 1927. As did his father, he commissioned models from many Viennese sculptors and modelers and continued production during the economic crisis of the 1920s. The models survived World War II undamaged in the cellar of his house which had been completely destroyed. 

Stylized cats, frogs and dogs were Viennese specialties. They were treasures of the Biedermeier Era with their pleasure in caricatures, mockery and satire. Published political and satirical cartoons of the time had become very popular and also served as models for the bronzes. Today, the life-like statues of pets and forest animals are more popular with collectors.

After the turn of the 20th century, hunting had become accessible to the middle class. The passion for hunting made animal bronzes popular. In the early 19th century, Vienna residents could admire exotic animals in the Imperial Zoo, known as the Imperial Menagerie. In 1818 the first giraffe at the zoo caused a big sensation, and artists   spent hours in front of the cages to model wild cats, elephants, monkeys and parrots.

In the mid 19th century, when traveling was still a big adventure, the Viennese discovered their passion  for the mysterious Orient. Even if people didn’t dare to set out on expensive and dangerous journeys to far off Asia, they could bring a taste for the Orient right into their parlor with Vienna bronzes. 

Expeditions of Austrian explorers in the mid 19th century brought back early photographs of a new world. Due to the construction of the Suez Channel and the trip to the Orient of Crown Prince Rudolf, the Viennese enthusiasm for the Orient grew. The famous and remarkable “Turkish Room” of the Crown Prince's apartment in Vienna’s Hofburg illustrates the trend of fashion during that period. 

In the late 19th Century a number of Austrian bronze foundries situated in Vienna and the Austrian-Bohemian border began to specialize in the technique of “cold painted” processes. Women, working at home, achieved this naturalistic finish by painting the raw bronzes with several layers of special and secretive enamel colors called “dust paints,” which resulted in fine lifelike studies of the various models and sculptures. They often applied the paint when the cast was still warm, the natural shrinkage on cooling adding to the permanency of the color as it annealed the paint firmly into the metal. As the color was not ‘fired’ this process came to be known as “cold painted.” Unfortunately, the knowledge for mixing this kind of paint has been lost. 

The Bergman foundry normally stamped with a capital 'B' that is placed in a twin handled vase. They are also often inscribed “Geschutzt” which refers to the model/design being 'registered' or copyrighted, along with its mark.

The value of a Vienna Bronze depends on the detail and subject of the sculpture. It also helps if the bronze is marked Vienna or Austria. These marks usually occur on the side or bottom of the bronze. In addition to the country there may also be an artist signature. The Bergmans, most notably Franz Bergman, were the most popular bronze artists. Generally, his bronzes sell from $800 to over $10,000 each.

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An Antique That Lasts a Lifetime

QUESTION: I love to cook. And I love to cook in my cast-iron skillet. I’ve had this skillet for nearly 50 years and it never fails me. I bought it at a second-hand store to use for camping, but I liked it so much, I began using to cook with in my kitchen. The name stamped into the bottom is Griswold. I’ve seen others like it at flea markets and would like to know more about it. What can you tell me about the company?

ANSWER: While other antiques may last as long or longer as a cast-iron skillet, few can be used regularly and still retain their value. Your skillet is a real classic. And if you take care of it and use it regularly, it should last another 50 years.

Cast-iron skillets have been around since 1642. The first one made, a small, three-legged covered pot that held one quart came from a foundry in Saugus, Massachusetts. The thing weighed 2 1/4 pounds, so the lady of the house probably developed some pretty heft biceps. From then until the early 19th century, cast-iron cookware had great value, so people took care of it and guarded it as a prized possession. 

However, cookware made of it was brittle, prone to rust, grainy, unfinished and difficult, if not impossible, to repair if cracked. It was also "reactive." Acidic foods, such as vinegar, tomatoes, and citrus, re-acted with the iron and changed the flavor and color of whatever the cook was preparing. The solution seemed to be to season the it. A non-stick surface wasn’t natural to cast iron. It had to be created by seasoning or curing the piece. A cook would repeatedly coat a pot’s inside surface with animal fat and place the utensil in a 250- to 300-degree oven for two to three hours. After wiping away any excess fat, he or she would lightly rinse it with hot water, using no soap, then thoroughly dry and store it in a dry place. Many people never ever put a used piece under water. Today, cast-iron cookware comes pre-seasoned.

By the 1840s, open hearth cooking had been replaced by the cast-iron stove which enclosed the fire in iron and shielded the cook from an open flame. Cooks placed their pots directly on solid iron plates—not open grates—that formed the top of the stove. In later models, foundries  cut deep holes into the top and made the iron plates removable. With this innovation, a pot could be placed into the hole for a snug fit and was as close as possible to the flame. Stove manufacturers found it to their advantage to add a line of cast-iron cookware that perfectly fit the removable iron plates or “eyes” of their stoves.

By the mid-19th-century, foundries that made cast-iron stoves also made cast-iron cookware— also called hollowware. The Selden brothers, John and Samuel, operated a foundry in Erie, Pennsylvania, where they manufactured butt hinges and other household hardware. In 1863, they added cast-iron cookware to their expanding product line. Because of the areas widely known foundries, they marked their earliest skillets, muffin pans, and Dutch ovens with one word, “Erie.”

In 1868, Matthew Griswold joined the Selden brothers. Unlike his partners, Griswold believed in patenting the products developed in the foundry. He patented just about everything. The name "Selden and Griswold" appeared on many cookware items shortly after 1868. At Samuel's death in 1882, Griswold bought out the remaining family members and changed the name of the company to his own. He cleverly kept "Erie” on some of Selden's most popular pieces, but added “Griswold” above it.

The Griswold Manufacturing. Company and its predecessors produced superior cookware in an industry dominated by inferior, low-quality goods. In the late 19th century, cast iron was often made by prisoners. The top of the Griswold line was "extra finish ware"—cooking utensils with a polished exterior, a milled interior, and top edges so tight that the connection between the pan and the lid was a waterproof joint that even the thinnest knife couldn’t penetrate.

Women noticed the difference. Unlike the products made by its competitors, pieces made by Griswold were thin and lightweight. After centuries of super heavy pots and pans, Griswold overcame cast iron's weight problem.

Women also noticed the company's distinctive trademark. Griswold featured a cross, a sign of quality, on most of its products. Over the firm’s long history from 1850 to 1957, Griswold Manufacturing Company produced over 180 cast-iron items. Included in the "non-cookware category" were cast-iron ashtrays, burglar alarms, fire. sets, gas heaters, sadirons, mailboxes, pokers, display racks, shovels, spittoons, sun dials and tobacco cutters. They introduced gas stoves in 1891, kerosene heaters in 1895, and parlor stoves in 1900.

Today, the cast-iron skillet dominates most Griswold collections and is nearly always the first piece a new collector buys. Good luck with your skillet and keep cooking.

Are All Cast-Iron Toys Alike?

QUESTION: I’ve recently become interested in collecting cast-iron toys. But there seem to be so many new ones out there, it’s difficult to tell the difference between the new and the old. Can you give me some pointers on what to look for? I believe it would be easy to get ripped off when buying toys for my new collection.

ANSWER: You have to be very careful when buying cast-iron toys. Even knowledgeable dealers often can’t tell the difference between new ones and old ones. And if you’re buying them at auction sites online, you need to know a few things to prevent yourself from getting ripped off.

Cast iron was the 19th-century equivalent of today's plastics—it was cheap, could be made in almost any shape, and identical pieces could be mass-produced in molds. Unfortunately, those reasons are why so many toys get reproduced in cast iron. Although manufacturers produce new cast iron toys in the same way as originals, there are certain differences between originals and reproductions.

Foundries make most cast-iron toys using a method called sand casting which begins with a full-sized, three-dimensional model or master pattern which the foundry worker pushes into the sand to make an impression. Some foundry workers place the master pattern in a wooden box, or casting frame, then pack fine sand, called casting sand, around the pattern. Each mold requires two frames—one frame for the top half of the mold and another for the bottom. Most makers use brass or bronze masters for toy molds for better detail and longer life.
                           
The worker locks the casting frame halves together, then pours molten iron into the mold. The iron runs into the hollow impression and forms a copy of the master pattern. After cooling, he separates the frames and removes the cast piece for finishing. Most foundries use sand molds only once since the impression deteriorates when the worker pours iron into it. However, some can be used several times. The number of times a mold can be used depends on the skill of the worker, the complexity of the master pattern, and the level of quality acceptable in the finished casting.
   
Two other basic sand-casting terms—runner and gate—can help determine when the casting occurred by the marks they leave. A runner is a channel running through the mold which feeds molten metal into the individual castings. The gate is the point where the runner castings branch off into the casting.

The casting sand also allows for several important differences between new and old cast iron toys. Casting sand used in original molds was generally finer than the casting sand used today. This means that old cast iron almost always has a smoother surface than new castings made with coarser sand. The surface of old cast iron both looks smooth and feels smooth to the touch—something that’s impossible to tell when purchasing cast-iron toys online. New cast iron usually has small prickly bumps that rise above the surface and holes or pits that go below the surface. The rough texture is the most obvious on unpainted surfaces, such as the inside or underside of toys.

A second major difference caused by the casting sand is the amount of detail in new and old toys. The finer the sand, the tighter it could be packed around the master pattern, which transferred more and smaller details to the mold. Old castings almost always have sharper lines and more detail while newer ones are less sharp, blurred, and lack the fine details found in old pieces cast with finer sand.

Makers of reproductions, on the other hand, use actual antique toys as master patterns or copies of original toys or copies of copies. Cast iron shrinks 3/32  to 1/8 of an inch per foot between mold and casting. This means each time a maker copies a piece a certain amount of distortion occurs which results in loss of detail. Even if the foundry worker takes apart an older piece and uses it as a pattern, the reproduction will be smaller than the original due to normal shrinkage.

Another difference between old and new cast iron toys is the amount of hand finishing. Almost all old pieces had at least some hand finishing, while most reproductions have none. Evidence of this occurs in matching halves of original cast iron toys which makers fitted together by hand filing or at least had the edges tumbled smooth in a machine: This extra attention to fit produced a tight seam in original cast iron toys.

On the other hand, the seams in new cast iron are often loose, with 1/8-inch gaps or more. Worker’s perform what little finishing they do on reproductions with modern high-speed production tools, which leave obvious grinding marks. Whenever these marks appear, especially if they’re bright and shiny with no patina, it pretty much guarantees the piece is a reproduction.

The way decorators painted old and new toys is another indication of age. They used fairly heavy oil-based enamel paint on older ones and much thinner paint, usually a water-based acrylic, on newer ones. Also, they usually dipped the older cast-iron toys, rather than used a brush to apply the paint. Today, decorators use air-powered spray guns to speed production.

The use of thicker paint and the heavier coatings of paint produced by dipping produces a distinctive wear pattern in original painted cast iron toys. Dipping also leaves paint on surfaces that are hard to reach with a spray gun, such as inside surfaces, hidden angles, and along the edges where seams meet. Toy banks, for example, usually show paint on both inner and outer edges of the coin slot. Likewise, old paint around a coin slot should show the typical ragged paint chips which would occur with normal wear.

New, thin paint on reproductions doesn’t chip even if deliberately gouged.  Most chips in old paint also show different layers of rusty brown or black which appear in the order the decorator applied them.

Even unpainted, old cast iron appears a different color than new cast iron. Old iron usually looks dark brown or even black, while new cast iron is typically gray or a dirty silver color.