The Parlanti Foundry was an art bronze

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

located at the Albion Works, 59 Parsons Green Lane in

Parsons Green Parsons Green is a mainly residential district in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The Parsons Green (The green), Green itself, which is roughly triangular, is bounded on two of its three sides by the New King's Road section of th ...

, London, and was in operation from 1895 until 1917.

History

The foundry was established by Alessandro Parlanti (c. 1862—c. 1921) and Gaetano Rovini, who traded from 1895 initially as Rovini & Parlanti, art bronze founders, and then as the Bronze Art Foundry Syndicate. Parlanti had come to London in about 1890, after working in the

lost-wax Lost-wax castingalso called investment casting, precision casting, or ''cire perdue'' (; borrowed from French)is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cast from an original scul ...

(cire perdue) method of casting at the Fonderia Nelli,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

's leading foundry, and ran the London business until August 1905 when its management was taken over by his brother Ercole James Palanti (c.1871-1955). Alessandro Parlanti cast work for sculptors including

Alfred Gilbert Sir Alfred Gilbert (12 August 18544 November 1934) was an English sculpture, sculptor. He was born in London and studied sculpture under Joseph Boehm, Matthew Noble, Édouard Lantéri and Pierre-Jules Cavelier. His first work of importance wa ...

Alfred Drury Edward Alfred Briscoe Drury (11 November 1856 – 24 December 1944) was a British architectural sculptor and artist active in the New Sculpture movement. During a long career Drury created a great number of decorative figures such as busts an ...

and

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (né Gaudier; 4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving. Biography Henri Gaudier was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans. In 1910, ...

, and also taught at the

Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School ...

; students including Alfred Turner and

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsma ...

later used his foundry to cast their work. After Alessandro returned to Rome with his wife and children, the foundry was managed solely by Ercole, who had worked alongside his older brother since about 1897. After 1917 Ercole sold the foundry, and moved a short distance away to set up a new foundry at Beaumont Road,

West Kensington West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...

. During the early 1920s, his business prospered from commissions for war memorials and became a limited company in 1926. However, it got into financial difficulties and went into liquidation the same year. Parlanti later established another casting business in Winders Road,

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

Commissions

Castings undertaken at Parsons Green included Sir

George Frampton Sir George James Frampton, (18 June 1860 – 21 May 1928) was a British sculptor. He was a leading member of the New Sculpture movement in his early career when he created sculptures with elements of Art Nouveau and Symbolism, often combinin ...

's ''Peter Pan'' statue,

George Frederic Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817 – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as ''Hope (Watts), Hop ...

' ''

Physical Energy Energy () is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light. Energy is a conserved quantity—the law of conservation of energy sta ...

'',

Albert Toft Albert Toft (3 June 1862 – 18 December 1949) was a British sculptor. Toft's career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in ...

's Boer War memorial (1906) in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Cannon Hill Park Cannon Hill Park is a park located in south Birmingham, England. It is the most popular park in the city, covering consisting of formal, conservation, woodland and sports areas. Recreational activities at the park include boating, fishing, bowls ...

and the Glenelg war memorial (sculpture by

Louis Deuchars Louis Reid Deuchars (1870–1927) was a Scottish artist and sculptor. Life He was born on 12 April 1870 in Comrie, Perth and Kinross, Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland. He attended Glasgow School of Art from 1887 to 1888. During his time in the ...

; unveiled 1920). Later castings include the sculpture on the

Royal Air Force Memorial The Royal Air Force Memorial is a military memorial on the Victoria Embankment in central London, dedicated to the memory of the casualties of the Royal Air Force in World War I (and, by extension, all subsequent conflicts). Unveiled in 1923, i ...

in London (1923) and the

Sheffield War Memorial The Sheffield War Memorial also known as Sheffield Cenotaph, is a Grade II* listed war memorial located at Barker's Pool, Sheffield, standing to the south of Sheffield City Hall, which is also Grade II* listed. Background There was much debate ...

(1925).

References

{{reflist

External links

Parlanti Bronze Foundries
Foundries in the United Kingdom 1895 establishments in the United Kingdom 1917 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Fulham