We have been called upon to recreate fountains for public spaces. The first you see below was created for the Washington Square Advisory Commission of Newport, Rhode Island, based on photographs from the Newport Historical Society as part of the successful drive to revive Washington Square as the living center of the Newport community. You can see the fountain being cast on our YouTube channel. Contact us to discuss a fountain for your community.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, David and Goliath, says Brown University’s campus ‘…might be the most beautiful college campus in the United States.’

This casting was created in 1930 at a foundry in Florence, Italy. The tradition of these foundries is to create traditional bronze patinas which, through aging, develop into variegated green copper carbonate – otherwise known as, ‘Verdigris,’ or by the general term, ‘Patina’ – the naturally developing surface which characterizes almost all outdoor historic bronzes.

The fountain had been, at some time in the past 50+years, entirely covered with brown paint. The nose was painted red. The water spout, which had originally come from the bear’s nostrils, had been cut off and remade to spout from the center of the pool.

Our challenge was to bring the sculpture back to life as a compliment to the campus, with great attention to the campus aesthetic. We removed the graffitti, recreated what we surmised was the original patina, and re-plumbed the fountain.