Wax figure

“ Flowers and fruit are very pretty in wax, and we presume masculine members of society of tender years admire wax beauties who turn about and wheel about in hairdressers' establishments, and wax widows who simper behind "grief-bordered" kerchiefs in mourning stores. But heaven defend us from men of wax! Whoever conceived the idea of moulding the counterfeit presentment of a military hero, three feet high, painting his cheeks pink, putting on his head a little wig, dressing him in uniform, hanging by his side a little sword, and putting him on exhibition in our fair? ”

“ The Wax Figures a patty Show: but with their painted Cheeks and glassy Eyes—especially such as nod and move—do look like Life in Death. The Drefsses very handsome, and I think, correct; and the Sight of so many People of Note in the Array of their Time, did much delight me. ”

“ The Danger of Modelling in Wax.—Few persons, especially, perhaps, of the many young ladies who are now practising the very pleasing art of modelling fruits, flowers, &c., in wax, at all suspect the great danger in which they are placed from the poisonous nature of the colouring matter of the wax which they handle so unsuspectingly. ”

“ Platt, modelled in wax in New York in 1787. I saw a maker of wax figures who said he had supported his family by his work, and thought a few others might make a living at it. One must be able to draw a model before undertaking wax figures. It requires good perceptive powers, ability to distinguish colors, and a peculiar taste. One must be able to work from life, and it is well to know how to do so from pictures. ”

“ Madame Tussaud's Wax-works are famous the world over, and though there are other wax-works in various cities, such as the Eden Musée in New York, which have been modelled on this one in London, Madame Tussaud's will always linger in one's mind as the greatest show of its kind.
"They look like real people," said Edith, as they walked through the big room with [82] hundreds of wax figures in all kinds of costumes. There were kings and queens and great people of a bygone time in rich court costumes, as well as great and notorious people of the present day. ”

“ Wax portraiture is one of the arts of the past so little known to many collectors that examples of it are not often met with in American collections. Ancient writers have given us a hint of the antiquity{69} of wax portraiture, not only in round sculpture, but in relief. Moreover, we know that the Greek artists in Egypt were adepts in painting portraits by means of powdered colors applied with rush brushes to slabs of cedar-wood covered with wax, into which coating the color could easily be worked when the sun’s rays were permitted to soften the wax. ”

“ Peachey, artiste to Her Majesty, now on private view at 35, Rathbone Place. We have seen many specimens of the elegant art of modelling in wax, but without exaggeration we may declare that more magnificent and truthful imitations of nature it has never been our lot to witness. The centre-piece is an immense bouquet of several hundred flowers, of almost every description, and every hue, from the gorgeous scarlet cactus to the virgin-tinted snowdrop, modelled with the closest fidelity, and arranged with exquisite taste. ”

“ If it is deemed advisable—which I think is only required in very dark over-done pictures—to wax the negative, it is easily managed by holding a piece of white wax or candle in front of a clean iron rather hot, and passing it frequently over the surface. ”

“ It is his opinion that the wax-workers, having first gorged themselves with honey, suspend themselves in festoons from the flowers, where they remain for twenty-four hours,—which in a chilly spring night would break many a link of the chain,—after which, one detaches herself from the festoon, enters the hive, and takes up her situation, with her forceps detaches a scale of wax from her side where it has recently exuded, works it with her tongue, and fashions it to the required consistency, succeeded in turn by others, artisan and apprentice. ”

“ The passion for symbolism extracted ever new meanings out of the candles and their use. Early in the 6th century Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, pointed out the three-fold elements of a wax-candle (Opusc. ix. and x.) , each of which would make it an offering acceptable to God; the rush-wick is the product of pure water, the wax is the offspring of virgin bees, [14] the flame is sent from heaven. [15] Clearly, wax was a symbol of the Blessed Virgin and the holy humanity of Christ. The later middle ages developed the idea. ”

“ In wax, especially, their figures have been brought to great perfection. Everything that surrounds them, they can imitate, and their wax portraits are sometimes little gems of art; but in this last branch, which belongs to a higher order of art, there are no good workmen at present. ”

“ Mrs. Peachey, on inspecting the location, objected, on the just plea that wax flowers were liable to atmospheric influence from the great heat accruing from the glass roof and plate glass surrounding her flowers; and also their material and serious injury from the impracticability of moving her compositions, composed entirety of wax, up staircases without injuring her designs. The whole has resulted in the total exclusion of one of the most beautiful contributions, designed and arranged by one of our most honoured and worthy British Artists. ”

“ I prefer in all cases to make the stamens of thread, though it requires much longer time; but in art time is but a secondary consideration, truthfulness being the only aim of the student.
There are two ways of using the color, one by taking the bristle brush, dipping the end of the stick in water and dropping it on the pallet, putting a small portion of the color on the brush, then passing it gently over the surface of the wax petals ”

“ In submitting the Art of Modeling Flowers in Wax to public favor, I am induced to believe it will be found acceptable; while, to the inexperienced, it will afford much valuable information, removing real and apparent difficulties. It will also present a stimulus to many to exercise their imitative powers in copying nature's most beautiful works, thereby cultivating a taste for the Fine Arts, which, in these days of advancement, is absolutely essential in the varied pursuits of life. ”

“ Unaffected by change or climate, wax flower modelling perpetuates the transient glories of the floral seasons; places all the tender varieties under the immediate glance of the ever gratified eye of the artist, who can thus in the depth of winter exhibit to an admiring foreign guest the exotics of the far hemisphere, or the indigenous plants of her own loved land. ”

“ Upon canvas fully imbibed with wax, you can neither use so great a body of colours, nor employ them with such freedom, boldness, or delicacy as you may upon cloth, whose texture is not pre-occupied with wax—the reason is obvious—the one has its pores and interstices filled up with wax ”

“ It is with no insular feeling that we express the same sentiment; but, nevertheless, we do feel it to be something to boast of, that our countrywomen will not have to learn the art of Wax Flower Modelling from foreigners, many of whom however have been amongst the now nearly 50,000 visitors attracted to the collection, by the notices of the Press, and who have expressed equal approbation. ”

“ The copious table of contents possesses great attraction for persons of refined taste, embracing every variety of flower usually modelled in wax: its arrangement is calculated to lead the learner, by easy steps, from the most simple to the most elaborate accomplishment of a very delightful task. ”

“ Wax is the last, and, as I have before pointed out, is, whether used melted or softened by warm water, of the highest service to the artist. Beeswax, when melted, will mix well with either plaster or whiting, or with both, and will make a useful modelling composition, its brittleness being determined by its containing more or less plaster. Wax will also mix with red ochre, and makes a modelling composition. Modelling wax is sold, however, ready prepared, and is useful to pack under the skin for delicate muscles or "flabby" folds of skin. ”

“ The white wax, for instance, contains white lead; the green, copper; the yellow, chrome yellow and vermilion—strong poisons all; while many other kinds of wax are equally poisonous, and, therefore dangerous. There are very many persons who are aware of the intense sufferings, for very many years past, of Mr. W. Bally, phrenologist and modeller in wax, in which latter branch he has laboured for 24 or 25 years, three of them as teacher of the art, at the Manchester Mechanics' Institution. ”

“ The waxen block in the heart of a man's soul, as I may say in the words of Homer, who played upon the words ker and keros, may be smooth and deep, and large enough, and then the signs are clearly marked and lasting, and do not get confused. But in the 'hairy heart,' as the all-wise poet sings, when the wax is muddy or hard or moist, there is a corresponding confusion and want of retentiveness; in the muddy and impure there is indistinctness, and still more in the hard, for there the impressions have no depth of wax, and in the moist they are too soon effaced. ”

“ The back of the flower will be rather larger than in the natural flower; but, as the flowers are placed close together, it will not be observed. The reason of its being made larger is, that the petals could not be pressed on to a smaller foundation, so as to fix them securely.
About fifteen or twenty blossoms, with buds made of small pieces of solid white wax, colored purple, will make a very effective and pleasing group. The leaves are made of a dull shade of green wax pressed on the plaster mold. ”

“ For a gentleman holding a professorship in a university, preface his name with Prof. or Professor. The title of “Professor” does not really belong to all men who teach any thing, or to every man that exhibits a show—or to mesmerists, and spiritual knockers. Do not give it to them.
For sealing letters no light is so convenient as a wax taper in a low stand. A lamp, or candle, may smoke or blacken the wax. To seal well, your wax should be of the finest quality. Red wax of a bright scarlet colour is the best. Low-priced wax consumes very fast ”

“ You cannot conceive of a better medium than wax among all the known mediums for production of effigies of human beings. Yet it is not perfect. And it is precisely because the likeness is so great, precisely because the effect is so parallel to that of reality, that we note the minor details in which illusion is not achieved. When a man sees a bust of marble he does not expect to find illusion. The greatest portrait statuary can never be more than a symbol. But the wax effigy aims at exact reproduction. ”

“ The pistillum and stigma are painted entirely over with the same colour previously used for veining. Cut five fine stamina in white wax, to the points of each attach an anther, cut in deep orange wax. They are placed across the end, and united by pressing them together with the head of the curling pin. ”

“ The art of imitating flowers in wax is, perhaps, the most beautiful method known of preserving a life-like representation of garden-gems, as the form, color, and texture can be imitated to perfection; while artistic feeling on the part of the student is required to complete the idea that flowers can be made to resemble nature in every respect, as regards form, color, the texture, stamens, and other parts of the natural flower. ”

“ When molten, it takes the minutest impressions of a mould, and it sets and hardens at such a temperature that no ordinary climatic influences affect the form it assumes, even when it is cast in thin laminae. The facilities which wax offers for modelling have been taken advantage of from the remotest times. Figures in wax of their deities were used in the funeral rites of the ancient Egyptians, and deposited among other offerings in their graves ”

“ Good old Giorgio Vasari, the gossipy chronicler of the Old Masters to whom we owe nearly all of our knowledge of the lives of the early Italian painters, wrote an interesting treatise on the technique of art from which the following is quoted, as being of further interest to the collector of wax portraits:{73}
In order to show how wax is modeled let us first speak of the working of wax and not of clay. ”

“ If one can get a peep behind the window, one may see scores of waxen busts not yet stitched on to their respective bodies, and discern, in half-opened drawers, hundreds of rosy, dimpled limbs; baby hands and feet — which look very funny in their unassociated condition: and one may quickly learn to distinguish the composite doll, whose foundations are laid with paper and whose wax is merely "run," from the solid person, with no pretence about her, who is all wax. On a counter, in a small armchair, sits a demure waxen child, with a book on its knee, a mechanical finger following the printed line ”

“ Wax has been used from the time of the ancients as a modelling material, both in connection with casting in bronze, and with the making of small studies for reproduction in more permanent materials. The production of a plastic work in wax intended to remain as the finished expression of the artist’s idea is of course a different matter. Among the Greeks, Lysistratos, the brother of Lysippos, about the time of Alexander the Great, introduced the practice of taking plaster moulds from the life, and then making casts from them in wax. ”

“ Chovet's wax-work, in which all the various parts of the human body are represented for the benefit of young students in anatomy, and of which I gave you a particular description a year or two ago, was much more pleasing to me. Wax is much fitter to represent dead bodies than living ones. ”