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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;moreotherstuff, post: 4323510, member: 56&quot;]<a href="https://www.harryrinker.com/col-1331.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.harryrinker.com/col-1331.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.harryrinker.com/col-1331.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><i><b>QUESTION:</b>&nbsp; About 20 years ago, I inherited a pair of Atlas of the World bookends.&nbsp; Each features a three-dimensional cockatoo with a painted red beak sitting on the upper left corner of the book.&nbsp; The bottom is marked “Pompeian Bronze.”&nbsp; What can you tell me about my bookends? – CC, E-mail Question</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><b>ANSWER:</b>&nbsp; The Pompeian Bronze Works traces its history back to the Galvano Bronze Company, a New York City firm founded by Paul Mori around 1889.&nbsp; Galvano Bronze was one of the first American commercial companies to use bronze electroplating and electroforming.&nbsp; Its earliest products were architectural elements.&nbsp; The company introduced bookends into its product line in 1915.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>In the early 1920s, the Galvano Bronze Company was sold to its employees and became The Pompeian Bronze Works.&nbsp; Peter Manfredi, an employee, filed 27 book and lamp design copyrights with the U.S. Library of Congress Copyright Office in 1921.&nbsp; The company continued using the bronze electroplating (bronze-clad) and electroforming using white-metal (often pewter) or spelter (zinc) to make ashtrays, bookends, and lamps.&nbsp; In addition to a bronze finish, the company painted some of its products.&nbsp; Scholars are not able to agree upon the end date for the company.&nbsp; It appears that some of the Pompeian Bronze Company molds were acquired by the Marion Bronze Company.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>[See <a href="http://www.antiquebookends.us/pg/makers-bronzeclad.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.antiquebookends.us/pg/makers-bronzeclad.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.antiquebookends.us/pg/makers-bronzeclad.php</a> and <a href="http://www.artfact.com/subcollection/pompeian-bronze-works-ur1lea3458" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.artfact.com/subcollection/pompeian-bronze-works-ur1lea3458" rel="nofollow">http://www.artfact.com/subcollection/pompeian-bronze-works-ur1lea3458</a> for more information.]</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>The website <a href="http://eurekaifoundit.us/antique/metals.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://eurekaifoundit.us/antique/metals.html" rel="nofollow">http://eurekaifoundit.us/antique/metals.html</a> notes in its “Fiction” section: “It’s bronze because it’s marked ‘Armor Bronze,’ ‘Pompeian Bronze’, or “Marion Bronze,’ False.&nbsp; These pieces are zinc with copper coating, produced by the ‘Electroformed’ or “Galvano’ process.”&nbsp; The website suggests lightly tapping a suspected bronze piece with a pencil.&nbsp; If the sound is a thud, it is zinc.&nbsp; A faint dull ringing tone indicates brass.&nbsp; Bonze has a clear ring tone.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Note from that excerpt that the molds moved around, so it might be some company other than Pompeian.</p><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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