• Architectural Artifact of the month (October 2019)

    October 11, 2019

    Artifact: Keystone, lion with ring
    Material: Grey Terra Cotta
    Identification marks: 162. inscribed in clay on top
    Dim’s h/w/d: 22-1/2” x 14-3/5” x 10”
    Weight: 65#
    Origin: NYC tenement

    A number of buildings in NYC feature this Roman inspired lion with ring keystone design, both with the integrated top cornice shown and without. The keystones date to circa 1905.

    Lions depicted with rings in their mouth were popular back in the ancient Roman era and have been used in many different applications besides architectural keystones, such as drawer and cabinet pulls, carvings on furniture and soforth.

    This particular keystone is identical to a couple I salvaged in NYC in the 1970s/1980s, though it is in better condition. This one was painted over at some point with gold paint of all things, it took a lot of effort to remove the stupid paint to restore it back to the 100 plus year patina. The gold paint is shown in the second photo below.

     

     

     

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  • Architectural Lion Keystone 1901

    August 5, 2018

    I used to have one of these lion keystones, the seIIer of this one wants more than I’m open to paying for it, but they accept 0ffers, so I sent mine in, we’ll see.

    I know they’ve had it quite a while because I bookmarked it in 2016.
    Dimensions: 23″ high- 12″ wide x 10″ deep.

    Interestingly enough it’s crisper and in better condition than the one I had back around 1980, it looks like the one I had was either made in a very worn mold or it wasn’t fired properly because it had a “grainy” pitted look.

    The store emailed that yes, they accepted! funny thing was in 2016 I saved the page it was on, they had it priced at $2,400, NOW they have it at $1,200 and I offered them $950, so that’s quite a lot off their original $2,400 price but like a lot of things they just picked a number and put it there, but after at least 2 years of sitting there taking up space and not selling they decided to halve the price and I’m probably the only one who showed any interest in it!

    After the keystone arrived Friday, I started stripping that crappy gold paint off it, and after fabricating a steel bracket for it, it’s now mounted on the wall.

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