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Netsuke Cat
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 BOXWOOD CAT NETSUKE  US $12.00
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 B98 Japanese Handwork Boxwood Wood Carving Netsuke Cat US $6.99
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 CHINESE HANDWORK CARVED LOVELY CAT OLD BOXWOOD NETSUKE US $3.11
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Bronze has long played numerous roles in the many historical cultures of the past. From the Greek to the Chinese, there has always been a prominent place for bronze sculptures in a wide variety of inner cultural connections. All though several cultures before the Greek are known to have made many small display sculptures, archaeological discoveries have yielded that the Greek civilization was the first civilization to create the original life-size bronze sculptures as known to us today.
When it comes to the full size bronze sculpture creation, the Lost Wax Method is the first to be acknowledged. In the method of lost-cast or also known as the investment casting method, to create a life sized model which is made out of an oil-based, clay substance that would not dry out while working with it. There are several ways to make the original mold from the pattern of oil based clay. There may be a flexible rubber or gel like material, or maybe a mold piece from the plaster created of several pieces of a preservation of the artwork may be made, called a 'plaster master'. A plaster mold may be held until the final decision is made to finish the project at hand. Because these life-size projects made of bronze are so expensive, these plaster molds are the best ways to hold the artistic creation until the funds are cleared for completion.
The next step is the cast for the mold that is a hollow wax sculpture. The hollow sculpture is to have a core put into the hollow area, and is kept within the proper location by metal pins. The addition of several wax sprues help in infusing the molten metal into the large life-size sculptures. The molten bronze metal is slowly poured from the bottom up so not to have any undesired splashing. With the larger bronze sculptures, there may be extra sprues positioned upward within certain critical positions. At this time there may be extra ventilations added when and were needed, so there can be release of gases that could be otherwise trapped.
At this point the wax structure is invested in a different mold to be heated until the wax melts completely away. The shell that is left is what the molten bronze is put into for the final process. When the casting metal is finally cooled, the ceramic outer mold is chipped away for the end result of the bronze sculpture to be smoothed and polished.
Anita Satin Choudhary writes for Ivory and Art Gallery. Browse the gallery for unique collection of artifacts, ranging from Bronze Sculpture to Netsuke and Russian Silver.
Pipe Tampers
When Sir Walter Raleigh introduced the smoking of tobacco (in a pipe) to the Elizabethan court in 1585, he had no idea what kind of cultural revolution he had started. Up until 1881 the pipe was king, when the cigarette machine was first invented. The combination of a newly discovered stimulant, the tobacco -- and a free enterprise European market, made sure there was a pipe in the mouths of every English sailors, trader, philosopher, tavern-keeper, army general, and every citizen within reach. Paintings, caricatures, the earliest of novels and the earliest of photographs, show us that the pipe was an intrinsic part of their daily lives, a hand-held pleasure, an adult (and sometimes juvenile) toy. True, the famous generals Grant and Sherman smoked cigars. But look closely at photos of their soldiers: what you’ll spot, again and again, are their pipes.
Those tobacco leaves burning so sweetly in a person’s pipe demanded care (see our article about caring for your pipe). To achieve a smooth and even draw of smoke, you need to push, or “tamp”, the “backy” down. Sir Isaac Newton once used a lady’s finger (still attached to its owner, it seems) to “tamp” his pipe, with fiery results. There just had to be a better way.
Japan had its purse-string netsukes ( miniature sculpted figurines that would hang from their purse strings), Native America its medicine pouches; Europe came up with figural pipe tampers. Like the netsukes and medicine pouches, “stoppers” in British English - were small, portable, useful, and wonderfully decorative. Within these little finger long sculptures, every aspect of contemporary life was depicted, glorified and satirized: terriers and grinning imps, two-faced popes and Cheshire cats, Bonaparte and the weeping Eve. a waistcoat-pocket menagerie. The art of silversmiths, pewterers, iron mongers and glassblowers spanning three very creative centuries.
In the tobacco-stopper (UK), the Brit displayed either taste or fancy. It was the only article on which the English smoker prided himself. It was made of various materials - wood, bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, brass, and silver; and the forms which it assured were exceedingly diversified.
Additional materials included pewter, bronze, iron, lead(!), horn, basalt, china, clay, lava and even animal teeth. Tampers of various forms were fashioned and used by nearly every ethnic group in every continent. Diversity, it seems, is nothing new. The tamper in a pipe smoker’s hand was a conversational piece. It had its own value close to the lives of everyday people. By the late 1800’s, mass production replaced the “craft” in most areas of life. Pipe smoking, the activity of a slower time, gave way to the faster, disposable cigarette. And tampers? They went the way of crafts people: from the workshop to the factory. Nearly all of today’s mass-produced tampers, made of acrylic, wood, steel, or brass, are functional. Some are still crafted by hand by the pipe carvers. They are mostly wood and mostly briar. Most of the modern tampers are utilitarian, not fantasy. There are a hand full of smiths out there that will have a few made out of silver, pewter or brass, reproducing the antique tampers found at the Smithsonian, Louvre or Royal Museum.
But today, in the 21st century, pipe smoking has returned at a very fast pace. Therefore all their accessories are in demand as are the pipes and their tobaccos.
About the Author
Jim Bennington has served the pipe smoker for 30 years In Boca Raton FL. Visit his website at www.bocabenningtons.com
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