Meet Bert and Ernie

Meet Bert and Ernie my two cherubs. Had some fun trying to figure out what this was made of. First clue was some casting lines on the toes suggested a resin cast. Then the chip on the back exposed a yellow/brown colouration which seems to confirm a resin cast. The base had me confused for a while as it seemed to be some kind of spelter yet underneath it almost looked like concrete with the white coating on it. The grinding marks on the feet have convinced me it is a cast metal with a coating. The round ring on top of the base sounds a bit like wood and may explain how they put it together. It is a heavy little sucker at 8.1Kg and is 54.5cm high. It sits on a fairly ornate one metre pedestal that weigh 14kgs. Might be the same construction as Bert and Ernie although the top is wood (I think). Came with some other stuff from an auction house that specialises in mainly estates but that's no guarantee of age so I'm thinking eighties or nineties maybe. Could be newer. Don't think I'll sell it as the cost of engineering a box to ship it would probably out weigh its value. As there are no screws or bolts anywhere do you think I'm right about wood in the middle being used to fix the cast to the base?

Cheers

Stephen

 

You could be right about it having a wood part.
It reminds me a whole lot of several church-shaped objects my wife got from a going-out-of-business sale at a Christmas décor shop.
About 18" tall, they are white-painted with the underlying material showing through in spots. There are casting lines, but also some attached metal and wood parts. They are quite heavy for their size.
The shop had a number of high-end items, more like the things you'd see in store displays than for home use.
We've never been able to figure out exactly what they are made from. Our best guess is some type of resin; they show a great amount of detail, but would have to have been cast in multiple pieces and then assembled. Nothing looks obviously glued-on however.
(I can't add pictures unless we unpack all our Christmas stuff, though)