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THE MORRIS-SINGER COMPANY
Branch of William Morris & Company (Westminster) Ltd. incorporating the foundries of J. W. Singer & Sons Ltd. of Frome
COLOSSAL STATUES AND
STATUETTES TABLETS AND
DORSET ROAD, SOUTH LAMBETH, S.W.8
NEAR KENNINGTON OVAL TUBE STATION
ARCHITECTURAL BRONZE WORK CROWN AQENIR..
BY SAND & CIRE PERDU PROCESS
RFH/EDB.
RECEIVEDRELIANCE 129 (3 LINES).
21 FEB 1947
FOR THE COLONIES
Crown Agents for the Colonies,
4, Millbank, LONDON. S.W.1.
Dear Sirs,
W
TELEGRAMS
MORISINGER CLAPROAD LONDON
20th February 1947.
Your 'ref: W/2F/Hong Kong 532.
With further reference to your letter of the 12th inst., concerning the Queen Victoria Status at Hong Kong, we have now gone into the question of the repairs, after having examined the photograph.s and full size drawings of the dame.ge, and in our opinion the only really satisfactory way to have matters put right is for the Statue to be returned to our Foundry, and to then get a Sculptor of repute to model the missing parts to suit the existing seatings on the Statue, for us to then produce plaster casts of his models and convert them into Bronze.
The fitting and finishing would then be properly carried out to the satisfaction of a supervising Sculptor.
The work would then be repacked and reshipped to Hong Kong.
There are alternative methods, but we do not feel happy about them. One would be for plaster casts of the mounts or seatings of the missing portions to be made in Hong Kong, care being made to see that the mounts fit exactly into the seatings on the Statue; WO would also require templates of the shape of the Statue as guides to the Sculptor who would model the missing, portions in England. vie would then cast these parts in Bronze, making the sockets a comfortable fit, and the actual fitting of the parts would have to be carried out in Hong Kong by local labour. This process, however, is a highly skilled
one.
The other method would be for a local Sculptor to model the missing parts in Hong Kong and send them to us for casting in Bronze; would also supervise the assembly of the new parts on the site.
We have made enquiries, and are unable to trace a copy of the Statue from which we could take plaster casts, and we feel that the
he
P.T.O.