- Offered here is a very unusual and hard to find pair of colorful mariner bronze clad book ends by Marion Bronze Company. A must have for the nautical collector. Take a good look at the photos. I have a photo with a pair of Gloucester, fisherman by Connecticut Foundry for comparative purposes.
- circa 1930s
- The Marion Bronze Company was founded in 1923 Metuchen New Jersey. In 1958 the family company was sold, at which time the new owners put an MB shop mark on its pieces. Prior to that there was no shop mark. Just the company’s traditional black felt bottom. The Marion Bronze Company family heirs have created a website that traces the history of the company.
- This is a very hard to find set. It is not listed in any of the collecting books.
- Construction is bronze clad.
- The patina is quite good. There are no breaks or cracks in the bronze cladding.
- Take a good look at the photos.
- This attractive pair of bookends is 7 inches tall, 7 inches wide and 4 7/8 inches deep. Together they weigh a little under 10 pounds.
- Shipping is $20 including insurance priority mail.
- Any questions please ask.
Most folks are not really familiar with bronze clad bookends so here’s a little background information. Prior to 1914 just about all high-end sculptural artwork was solid bronze. About that time a company named Kathodian Bronze Works began manufacturing small sculptural artwork such as bookends (back then they were called “book rocks”) and statuary using a process imported from Europe around the turn of the century known as electroplating or electroforming. A plaster mold was made and then it was covered with graphite to allow copper or bronze to be electroplated on top of it. It was a very time-consuming process and several companies went one step further by painting the bookends in a very colorful fashion. This was a time-consuming and expensive manufacturing process by the early 1930s most manufacturers had exited the business.
Kathodian Bronze, Armor Bronze, Pompeian Bronze, Marion Bronze and Galvano Bronze were significant manufacturers of statuary book ends in the first part of the 20th century.