Edition: 258

Era: Pre-Goebel

Category: Scaled Reproduction

Product Line:

Series Name: Wildlife

Art Form: Painted Bronze

Studio Mark: Artist Signed

Size:

First Year of Issue: 1978

First Year Issue Price: $30.00

Highest Known Price Paid: $1,300

Artist's Age:  33

HISTORY: Bob always has liked birds, and this was his first bird wax. He had many different birds flitting around the plantings in his back yard.  He purchased an inexpensive porcelain figure with two doves on the base, then carved his two doves and placed them on a dogwood tree wax that he had previously sculpted.  Although Bob used his purchase as a general model, he did reposition the doves to provide the balance he wanted. This was his first experience at actually using "artistic license" to alter a model.  Carved in December 1977.

GENERAL:  Quantity: 258 painted, none in white; eight free standing sterling and 15 sterling charms, issue price $32.80; two gold charms, issue price $90.  The sterling and gold charms have only one dove.  The sterling and gold castings were produced first, followed by the painted figurines.  Bob was particurarly interested in the texture of the tree.  When the casting emerged with so much sharp detail, he was jubliant.  He added color in the flower, but was most interested in the detail of the tree trunk and the open wing patterns of the doves.  The sterling and gold figurines reveal more detail and texture, probably because they were the first out of the mold and there was no painting to fill in the detail.  Painting and casting skills today have increased exponentially since those early experimental days. "This wasa pretty wax," proudly declared Bob.  His previous waxes did not possess either the detail or the complexity that this one exhibited.  Notice the glistening white glaze of the "Doves," compared, for instance, to the flat and uninteresting white of the "Poultry Seller."  Bob had discovered the secret of a gleaming white.  There were 13 setps to this painting sequence.  The experience gained with this figure began a patternof improvement for the future Wildlife Series, just as "Poultry Seller" provided for the Historical Series.  A wooden base was added to provide a finishing touch to this handsome figurine.  The charms do not have wooden bases.  The bottom of each wooden based is marked "____/3000" whether or not the figurine is painted bronze, or unpainted precious metal.  The charms, however, are engraved with a production number (#1 and 2 for the gold and #3-17 for the sterling) and "Olszewski" on their bases.

SIGNED: On the bottom of the wooden base: some printed "Olszewski" and some in script "R.Olszewski": precious metal figurines were not signed.

STRONG POINTS: First good reproduced detail and a much-improved white glaze.

WEAK POINTS:  None identified. 

VARIATIONS:  None identified.

The above is an excerpt from The Goebel Miniatures of Robert Olszewski:  An Authoritative Reference & Price Guide, 1989, Collectibles Reference Press by Dick Hunt