366 Mr Ilobison on the Casting of Statues in Metah 



portion of what he would be entitled to expect as the reward of 

 his talent, or the recompense for the risk and anxiety he is made 

 to undergo. 



If, by adopting a cheaper material, and a less expensive me- 

 thod of casting, we should succeed in greatly reducing the cost 

 of statuary, we could more easily afford a liberal remuneration 

 to the genius of the sculptor, the natural consequences of which 

 would be, that more talent would be called forth, and the public 

 places of our cities would soon be enriched by numerous works 

 of art ; perhaps we should by degrees come to vie even with those 

 countries whose more favourable climates have led to a greater 

 development of talent in this branch of the arts, than we have 

 hitherto been able to boast of manifesting. 



It will perhaps be objected by some persons, that iron is too 

 mean a material to be used in the higher classes of statuary, but 

 we apprehend that this is a prejudice which will yield on a little 

 reflection. We do not think iron is too mean to form the main- 

 spring of a chronometer, the sabre-blade of a hussar, or the 

 sword-hilt of a courtier, in which latter form, we learn from Mr 

 Babbage, it has increased its original value 973 times *. If fit- 

 ness for the end be the criterion we are to judge by ; and if iron 

 be susceptible of taking a sharper impression from a mould than 

 bronze, (which no one can doubt who examines the Berlin and 

 other similar castings), we are bound to admit, that, in this 

 respect at least, it is a better material for doing justice to the 

 model of the artist ; we may then proceed to inquire, whether 

 there be any thing in the nature of the metal to make it likely 

 to be less durable than bronze. 



In one material point, iron-statues must have the advan- 

 tage, as the labour which would be required to overthrow and 

 break up a large figure, would scarcely be repaid by the price 

 obtainable for its fragments ; while the experience of ages shows 

 us, that the marketable value of bronze affords an irresistible 

 temptation in times of popular tumult, and that gods and god- 

 desses, when made of that material, are not always immortal. 



• Many of those beautiful miniature statues in French clocks, which we 

 consider as bronzes dor^s, are, in point of fact, made of cast iron j but as the 

 gold cannot be applied by amalgamation, as in the case of bronze, the iron or- 

 naments may be detected by the inferior appearance of the gilding. 



