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Lot Essay
This striking stag, dynamically posed leaping over a log, was part of a large commission that Charles Deere, the son of John Deere and the president of Deere & Company from 1887-1907, ordered from the W.H. Mullins Company of Salem, Ohio between 1893 and 1896. According to the Deere company archival records, they were often gilded and were originally intended as architectural roof ornaments (see details 1 and 2).
The large statuary were all made in the same manner: sheet-copper or sheet-zinc was stamped into cast-iron molds up to 72 inches wide, which were then soldered together and braced internally with an iron or copper skeleton. The cast-iron molds used to make the forms that appeared in the Mullins company catalogs were used repeatedly, but for those unique commissions, the molds were usually melted down to use on future projects. Close examination of the Mullins Company catalogs produced in the 1890s does not show an exact prototype of this stag and it is likely that the Deere commissions were unique.
In 1872, the Kittredge, Clark & Company was founded in Salem, Ohio. Originally manufacturers of architectural elements, by 1878, Kittredge, Clark & Co was making statuary. William H. Mullins joined the company in 1882 and within a few years owned it. An energetic man, Mullins was a contemporary of Edison and he enjoyed experimenting with a variety of products, including metal ceilings, metal boats, elevator cabs and skylights. It was his sheet metal statuary that Mullins was proudest of, however, and are his greatest legacy. His statue of Diana capped the Architectural Building at the Columbian World's Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Other examples of the Mullins statuary exist throughout the country, and can be seen primarily on public buildings, in the figures of eagles, allegorical figures, lions, or as monuments in town parks and cemeteries.
The large statuary were all made in the same manner: sheet-copper or sheet-zinc was stamped into cast-iron molds up to 72 inches wide, which were then soldered together and braced internally with an iron or copper skeleton. The cast-iron molds used to make the forms that appeared in the Mullins company catalogs were used repeatedly, but for those unique commissions, the molds were usually melted down to use on future projects. Close examination of the Mullins Company catalogs produced in the 1890s does not show an exact prototype of this stag and it is likely that the Deere commissions were unique.
In 1872, the Kittredge, Clark & Company was founded in Salem, Ohio. Originally manufacturers of architectural elements, by 1878, Kittredge, Clark & Co was making statuary. William H. Mullins joined the company in 1882 and within a few years owned it. An energetic man, Mullins was a contemporary of Edison and he enjoyed experimenting with a variety of products, including metal ceilings, metal boats, elevator cabs and skylights. It was his sheet metal statuary that Mullins was proudest of, however, and are his greatest legacy. His statue of Diana capped the Architectural Building at the Columbian World's Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Other examples of the Mullins statuary exist throughout the country, and can be seen primarily on public buildings, in the figures of eagles, allegorical figures, lions, or as monuments in town parks and cemeteries.