My Guardian Gargoyles

Good morning, all! These are my beautiful (but extremely heavy at 42 lbs. ea.) old guardian gargoyles. I use to live on a country 5 acres but moved to a city apartment. Now they are cooped up in a tiny living room and I feel sorry for them. I'm actually considering finding them a more majestic home but it's a bitter sweet decision. Even though I've had them for a very long time, I've never researched them or tried to find out anything about them. I talk to them a lot. Is that weird, lol? They stand approximately 19" tall. Can anyone take a stab at age, etc.? Thank you!

P.S. Not sure if I put these in the right category?

 

They are winged lions. No spouts, so technically not gargoyles.
Cast, probably concrete. No idea about the age.

No.

 

Hahaha!! Me believes you do it, too?

Winged lions? I've never heard that term before. And I've already learned something new! Thank you!

 

Yep.
If I didn't, they would never look at me again.

 

Maybe just sell one? Otherwise, who will you talk to?

A winged lion is the symbol of St. Mark/Venice, but yours look a bit too fierce.

 

And therein lies the dilemma of who to talk to. Interesting that you'd comment on their fierce look. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember an intrigued friend commenting that the older ones were fierce in nature to ward of evil. Not sure if he knew what he was talking about though.

 

Bronwen, that picture! <3 That is a majestic looking kitty, isn't it?!!

Am I just overlooking the heart icon?

 

The carved originals were meant for the entry of an estate or grand house. They conveyed status and identity.
Gargoyles were fierce to ward off evil.

I don't think there is one.

 

Interesting! Then there was a little bit of truth to his statement ... somewhat. These are definitely cast from a mold so maybe they were meant to "copy" that tradition. I just got to thinking that maybe the material used in the concrete could help me pinpoint a timeline.

 

On the Doge's Palace in Venice. As majestic as they come.

 

How long have you had them?

 

I've had them since I moved onto my 5 acre property which was around 1992, give or take a year. I bought them from a little junkyard/resale type place that had just opened in downtown Conroe, Tx.

 

Thought this might be the case. They may have been new or nearly new when you got them. These were very popular in the late 80s and early 90s.

 

That may be the case. However, at that time, Conroe was in a huge growing mode. Old dilapidated farm house and Victorian style houses were being remodeled and/or torn down left and right. The seller told me that they picked it up from an estate sale of an old house that was being dismantled. I've dealt with them several times during the course of those years and never found them to be untruthful but you never know. In fact, right around that time there was a gorgeous colonial style house that was torn down. I wondered if that was the place they got it from. It made me ill to see that thing go.

 

Verybrad, thought of something else now that you reminded me of their popularity back then. The new statues of the 80's and 90's were much smoother in texture and not near as heavy as these two are (in size/weight comparison). I bought several new cherub statues in addition to these to decorate my garden/porch area. I sold those in a garage sale as soon as I moved out, though.

 

Same idea as verybrad!
I (and lots of other people) made them back then.
Just can't seem to find my pictures or my website from then...
I can also ad (and sorry to say....)that they are pore casts, because lots of imperfections...I would not leave them outside during winter time.

 

Hi! I appreciate your input and would love to see your pictures. That must've been an interesting thing to do. These statues have been outside almost ever since I purchased them through rain, sleet, cold, humidity and whatever else. After all, they are garden statues. They've never deteriorated in the least and the only time one of them lost a very small piece of concrete was from the tip of a little toe when my son-in-law dropped it while carrying it during a move. I'm just thankful he didn't lose HIS little toe. As I said, they're only about 19" high and a whopping 42 lbs each. I was just reading, in fact, that older concrete had a lot more impurities and little pebbles (which are clearly seen on these) thus not only making it heavier but harder to join halves together evenly. I couldn't find that by looking up anything to do with antique statues. I had to search the history of concrete and read through a bunch of historical buildings and the way they were made. Interesting but PHEW!

 

Hey Rastella, I do so asap,it has been 3 PC crashes and many years ago. But most pictures must have been saved, somewhere....only need to go thru all my USB stick's laying around.

Concrete is meant to stay on the outside, but with the imperfections I can see, water and frost could damage them. If you have dry winters there is not problem.

I know all about them being heavy when they are large. When making them they need to be handled lots of time. I used to made lions at more or less they real size to put in front of gates and porches.
A trick is to make hollow statues but this is quiet difficult when using concrete. You need a fast drying concrete that looks more like a paste, and only fluid concrete reaches for every detail in a mould/ die.

It is hard to date concrete by the looks of it, if you just have only concrete.
If this is part of something else like a building or so, you could judge it by the other elements being around. But not if you just have a piece of concrete, even if it is a nice statue.

I have been studying concrete and working with it for many years, always trying to improve things regarding my casts. At one time I got a little book of a late medieval apprentice (it was republished!) who kept notes of recipes and tricks he have seen or learned from the master- artists he worked for. Everything I learned or even things I thought to have improved, where written in that little book more then 300 years ago....

 

I managed to found some pic's!
It was fun digging in the old memory box, also found lots of other things
There are many more but lets start with these.
Some pic's will show also restorations and casts made of polyester and my best ever was the Jack Russel digging....
In fact no concrete examples among these pic's , the only one I found up to now will no up-load for some reason. But it still gives you a idea of the moulds, the stuff you fill it with (plaster, concrete, resin )doesn't matter...

 

Kristiaan, all I can say is WOW! Those are great!

(from someone who has a few concrete "garden statues" inside her house!)