Area served International | Products Plaster mold casting | |
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Founder Attilio Contini
Cesare Contini Headquarters New York, New York, United States | ||
A. Contini & Son was a fine art plaster mold casting firm founded by Italian American Attilio Contini and his son Cesare. Based in New York, New York, United States, A. Contini & Son made plaster molds for sculptors around the world including James Earle Fraser, Ivan Meštrović, Herbert Haseltine, A. Stirling Calder, Adolph Weinman, among others.
History
Attilio Contini (1884-1960) is a fourth generation moulder/caster. He train in Italy with his father Augusto Contini which family lore notes worked on the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome. Attilio moved to the United States to work on sculpture for the 1904 Louisiana Expostion at the urging of his cousin Eugenio Contini, also a moulder and caster. Attilio initially worked for the Roman Bronze Foundry casting some of Frederic Remington's later works. He later started his plaster mold and casting firm. A. Contini and Sons was formed when his son Cesare (1907-1990) became an active moulder and caster c1919. Attilio had several sons to include Orazio, Amedeo, Victor and James who worked in the family business through to the late 1980s. Their last work was for Stanley Bleifeld on his The Lone Sailor, Navy Memorial in Washington, DC. Among the works cast by Contini family are Prometheus in NYC, the Jefferson Memorial, the US Grant Memorial and the Fredrick Hart's portico for the National Cathedral Night, Their work can be seen in nearly every major US city. Among their clients were Paul Manship, Anna Huntington, Georg Lober, Laura Fraser, Richard Recchia and Donald DeLue. The firm worked with many notable public art sculptures including works by James Earle Fraser who worked closely with Attilio in the 1920s to create The End of the Trail. Cesare would later restore and create the molds for a re-installation of The End of the Trail at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.