Private owner

Dallas, TX

During more than 25 years of artist life, sculptor John Vassar House more times approached the eagle winged forms with different results. In only one instance this was a figurative form while all the other versions maintained the common open winged form while differing for the orientation and base.

This is the last casting made by sculptor John Vassar House.

The finished bronze sculpture (on the left) is standing alongside the full-size wax model (on the right) before proceeding with lost wax casting. This is an example of direct wax casting rather than hollow lost wax. The model is always hollow and is temporarily supported by wood and metal struts to bear the hot summer heat of Rome.

You may appreciate that the direct wax represents a higher risk of failure rather than a lost (hollow) wax casting. In the end the bronze sculpture came out perfectly, as John Vassar House was a master of hollow wax thicknesses through the artwork pieces. The risk of the hollow wax bronze pour in fact, is that the metal cools off upon a narrow passage thus preventing the flow to fill all (wax) empty gaps.