April 2009 News
‘Derbyshire Life’ feature
This well-known magazine decided to do an in-depth article on Leander and its work in their April issue. Amongst the responses it generated was one from the former archivist of Rolls-Royce. A few years ago we made a series of bronze RR Centenary plaques for locations at home and abroad. To reach one awkward site, we had to transport the works fork lift truck to an adjacent street, off-load the plaque and its massive mounting boulder and negotiate some tricky pathways to reach the spot.
Anyway, the RR man wrote “you are very demonstrably artists in your own right, as well as first-rate founders. It all reinforces what I said to Sir Ralph Robbins, then Chairman of RR - your operation is one of which Derbyshire should be proud.”
Bronze tympanum for French chateau
This curious image was an allegorical twisting of a famous image which showed the Devil feeding peasants into the Mouth of Hell. The image we cast showed the opposite - the monks being pushed in, rather than the peasants! We cast it from a broken plaster relief brought from the chateau and the bronze is now on its way to its new home. We used a thick murky patination to make the plaque look anything but new.
An image of the original can be found at www.conques.com/visite23
McFarlane Fountain Restoration
Roger Lees assesses the job!
A goodly number of McFarlane 4-column and 8-column drinking fountains still survive in the UK and overseas. Made by Walter McFarlane, Saracen Foundry, Glasgow in the late Victorian era (hence the over-the-top decoration!) they have survived mainly in parks and occasionally in town centres. We dismantled this one at Whitehall Park, Darwen, Lancs on 24th April for complete refurbishment.
Work across the Irish Sea
Some interesting work is being generated in Ireland. A sizeable order for signage metalwork in Co Cork has been followed by two interesting projects in Limerick. One comprises ductile iron (rowing) oars with text on the blades as a novel form of historical plaque. The second involves four large lectern-mounted full colour plaques with crests and motifs. The Limerick Civic Trust have achieved great things over the past twenty years or so and we’ll enjoy working with them on these projects and others to follow.
Sculpted balustrades
Bespoke bronze
The first (low-res unfortunately) photos of cast bronze balustrades for a new swimming pool at a Cheshire house. Each panel was sculpted in wax by Denise Dutton and cast, patinated and installed by us in early April. Close-up and high-res photos to follow, hopefully!