Oscars in the Family Album

Excerpt from Clay Bodies:

Among my grandmother’s things from her life as Mrs. Brad Keeler is a photograph of eleven presumably bronze statuettes that look eerily similar to the famed Oscars of the Academy Awards. Family lore is that Grandpa Brad had a hand in designing the first statuettes. But is it true? Here’s what I know: 

 In spite of other assertions that Brad’s first job was for Padre Potteries, it appears that his first first job was working for the Phillips Bronze and Brass Corp. studios, which was owned and operated by Rae Warren Phillips, a friend of his father’s who is named on his patent for a specialized clay-cutting apparatus that is intended to neatly cut square architectural tiles, thus saving the ceramist the tedious work of hand-cutting. Rae, or R.W., was the metallurgist who knew how to cast shapes in various metals, particularly bronze, and he was the craftsman behind Phillips Bronze and Brass.

Brad sculpted and created large-scale works in bronze including the bust of John Bullock, founder of Bullocks Department Store, and some larger-than-life parrot sculptures that are as tall as I am. There is a photo of him, elbow propped on the head of Bullock, his other hand on his hip, whole body cocked to the side in a confident posture, a literal feather in his cap.

And there are the photographs of the Oscars.

Official written history is that George Stanley sculpted the original statuette from a sketch by director Cedric Gibbons, and the first of what would be many contracts with foundries went to Guido Nelli, an Italian immigrant who lived from 1888-1952. The California Art Bronze Foundry was co-owned by Nelli and a man named P. E. Keeler. 

Keeler. Coincidence? Probably.

There is no one so far that I can locate in the family tree with those initials who lived during that period in that place. 

What I have sussed out so far: Nelli was the creative artist and craftsman behind the foundry. Coming to Los Angeles by way of entering the United States through New York by way of Petrograd, Russia and originally from Rome, Nelli introduced the lost wax process of casting metal sculptures. 

[Mom, while working for Lynx making golf clubs, learned the lost wax process of casting in metal. It is something she has spoken of with some pride.]

Nelli cast the Oscar designed by Stanley and presumably held the contract until the Great Depression forced him to close down the foundry, and for the duration of World War 2, due to a metal shortage, the Oscars were made of plaster. After the war would put us into 1945, and by that time Brad would have been in his thirties and well beyond his early work sculpting for R. W. Phillips at Phillips Bronze and Brass (also known as Phillips Bronze Corporation, or, as I recently learned, Phillips Bronze Bushings Works). So I begin to wonder, did Brad have a hand in the plaster version of the statuettes? That would have been 1944, according to the timeline. 

Letters from Brad to Catherine dated 1942, the summer they rented the Laguna Beach beach house on the Pacific Coast Highway, the one that is now painted a periwinkle blue and owned by a chiropractor, was the summer she was pregnant with her middle child, a son, Patrick. They were already living at the Delay Drive house. On the census for 1940 he is listed as a ceramist and Catherine as a finisher, and a lodger named Elizabeth is with them and she is also employed as a finisher. On his draft card from the same year, he lists his employer as Padre Potteries in Los Angeles. So it would seem by 1942 he was building his own pottery in the backyard on Delay Dr., and already working with James Webster on the Bradster works. James is referenced multiple times in the letters home when talking about his work. 

Looking at the photo of the Oscars that I have, I compare that against a timeline of what the Oscars have looked like. The photo I have is clearly different from the war-time plaster Oscar but identical to one that Katharine Hepburn received in 1933. Identical. 

So where was Brad in 1933? He would have been twenty years old. That would have been two years before his marriage to Catherine, one year before his father Rufus died. Brad had two years of college, according to voting records. That would make the timing of his first job, around age 20, about right. 

In fact, though, all of the earliest statuettes match the ones in the photograph. But Brad would only have been sixteen years old in 1929, so it’s unlikely he worked for Guido Nelli at that time. Could there have been a bidding war for the right to produce the statuettes? 

What I can tell you is that internet says Brad was employed by Phillips circa 1931. The timing is right. And Nelli closed the foundry during the Great Depression. It couldn’t have been 1929, when he was producing the first statuettes, but I can find no record of his producing them after that. And while the Depression lasted until 1939, when World War 2 brought us out of it, it’s unlikely he would have closed down so close to the end—surely it was more toward the middle? 1934ish? Or even earlier, maybe? 

Let’s say hypothetically that Phillips outbid him for the Oscars and produced them in 1933. 

It’s possible.

An avenue for further research. 

What I know is this: We have an original photograph of the Oscar statuettes. In the photograph are eleven statuettes. The statuettes match the design of the originals, including one won by Katharine Hepburn in 1933. Brad worked for Phillips Bronze and Brass for his first job, which would have been around that same time. He would have still been living at home. By 1935 he was married and living at another family property, on Delay Drive in Los Angeles, and working for Padre.

Was Brad involved with the production of the first Oscars? Maybe not the first, but close.

**

Postscript: It is the following morning and I am thumbing through the photographs and find one that I had previously overlooked: three more statuettes, two with engraved plaques that read,

Academy of

Motion Pictures

Arts and Sciences

First Award

1934

So there it is. 

Although the one without the placard is on a very tall base, unlike any of the others I have seen thus far. So the mystery remains.

***

Post-Post Script

My continual searching on the internet eventually turned up an article, "The Oscar Statue Gets a Makeover", on the Los Angeles Magazine site circa 2016. In the article is the following sentence:

In 1935 the Academy switched to Phillips Bronze Bushing Works near Central and Washington for one year.

So there's the answer. I still have many questions, like, why? And why only a year? Where did the author get his information? 

It's a Bust

Meet John G. Bullock, founder of Bullock's Department Store. For people of a certain age, you might remember shopping here, especially those in Southern California. I don't have memories of Bullock's, per se, but I do remember it as an option at the mall. It closed its doors forever in 1995, but when it opened in 1907 it was glamorous. 

Here is in an inside joke: When my husband and I go out to antique stores in search of Brad Keeler Artwares, if we don't find anything, my husband will declare it "a bust" to which I unfailingly reply, "no, it's a torso". I'm the one in the family who makes the dad jokes. But in this case, it really is just a bust, not a torso. 

Yes, there's a Brad Keeler connection.

Brad graduated high school in 1931. Upon graduation, and even before, he lucked into some industry jobs thanks to his famous father, Rufus Bradley Keeler, whether that be cleanup work on the Malibu Potteries after a fire, or in the case of this bust, working for Phillips Bronze Bushing Works.

Rufus and a man named Rae Warren Phillips became acquainted circa 1909, the year that Rae Warren married Rufus' first cousin Jennie. Despite being in different fields--metallurgy and ceramics-- the two men occasionally worked together on projects, even going as far to apply for and receive a patent for a tile making apparatus. 

Both men, now married and both with sons, continued to make their way in life. Eighteen year old Brad, having demostrated a gift for drafting and modeling, began working for Rae as a modeler. There are large bronze parrots (as in, 5' tall!) that have been attributed to Brad, but which are signed simply Phillips. We can only make assumptions based on the similarities between Brad's later ceramic parrots and these early bronze ones. However, there's more data when it comes to the bust of John G. Bullock.

Here is a photo from the family album: Brad Keeler leaning casually on the bust. My mom remembers, after her father died, while her brother Pat was engaged to his second wife, Judy, going with her mom to Bullocks Wilshire in Los Angeles and seeing the bust in person. And she remembers that it is signed Brad Keeler on the back.

It has occurred to me to wonder from time to time where that bust wound up, considering how long its been since Bullocks closed its doors. Google is not always helpful, until it is. You have to have the exact right search terms. And I have tracked it down. It's housed within a former Bullocks which is now a Macy's, on Lake Ave in Pasadena, down a hallway to the bathrooms. The store itself is a museum of sorts, with its original furniture and fixtures and artifacts from the golden age of Bullocks Department Store, including the bust.

Pasadena is about an hour away from house and its one of our regular haunts for looking for Brad Keeler Artwares. Next time we're in the area, I plan to make a pilgrimage to the bust. Sure, it's up against the wall now, so I may not be able to see his signature.

But I will know its there.

For next time: Brad Keeler and the 1935 Oscar statuettes. 

New(ish) article up in Atomic Ranch!

Hello dear readers,

Life sometimes gets the better of me so here it is five months later and I realize I never posted anything about the article I wrote for Atomic Ranch, "The Enduring Charm of Brad Keeler Artwares." Enjoy!

Clay Bodies: An Excerpt

Yesterday was the 110th anniversary of my grandfather Brad Keeler’s birth. Brad was my mother’s father, and his wife Catherine, my grandmother who I am named after and who I knew and loved. Brad died when my mom was four years old. Her memory of him is fragmented at best.

For the past ten years, I have been working--slowly--toward a book about him and his father before him, Rufus Keeler. It is my way of my excavating the family history, and examining it in the light.

The year 2022 saw an acceleration of this project, so now I am confident (knock on clay) that 2023 will be the year that I will finish the book, entitled Clay Bodies: The Brief Lives and Lasting Legacies of Rufus B. Keeler and Brad Keeler, Father and Son Ceramicists.

Periodically, I will be posting excerpts from the book. I invite my readers and Keeler ceramics collectors to share their thoughts and ask questions.

Click here to read today's excerpt, "Taking the Long Way Home," on Everyone the Same Soup.

How to Correctly Identify a Brad Keeler Piece

On weekends, my husband and I often find ourselves near antiques shops. When we do, we scour the glass cases and open shelves for anything that could have been produced by my grandfather, Brad Keeler. We've had some lucky finds: flamingos, a rooster platter, and most recently a covered serving dish from the fish service line.

It does seem that authentic pieces are becoming harder and harder to find, likely due to the limited production because of my grandfather's short lifespan. As of this writing, on January 24, 2023, there are 147 Brad Keeler listings on eBay.

A quick scan of them tells me that most of them are authentic. Most, but not all.

Whether unscrupulous or simply uninformed, some sellers attribute the Brad Keeler name to pieces that, to a novice, bear a resemblance to something made by him, but when you know what to look for, it becomes clear that either a piece is a knockoff or it's just plain not his. I'm going to give you two real-world examples, and a couple of things to look for. 

1) Lobsterware

Three lobster platters with lettuce-green leaves. One is real. Can you tell which is which at a glance?

All three of these came up under a search for Brad Keeler on eBay. Things to look for: Note the colors of the glaze, the detail on both the leaves and the lobsters, and always look for a makers' mark.

Keeler was famous for his "Ming Dragon's Blood" true red glaze, an innovation at the time. Which of those lobsters appears to have the truest red? And while there is some variation with the greens in different buffet service lines, none of them are quite that vivid a green. 

Another distinctive feature is the shape of the lobster. You will typically see more artistic detail. The leaves, too, have a distinctive look to them. They draw the eye inward toward the body of the lobster. Visually, they do not compete with the lobster for the viewer's attention; rather, they are the canvas on which the lobster is artistically placed.

Lastly, always look for a maker's mark. There are rare exceptions, but the lobsterware line will typically have a stamp with or without a number on its backside, and possibly even a sticker. (Stickers are rarer because they fall off over time.) Other things to look for: The tell-tale crazing, e.g. hairline cracks in the glaze. If there are no cracks in the glaze, it is definitely not authentic. 

2) Figural birds

As is with most of Brad Keeler's work, the more detailed the work, the more likely it is to be an authentic Brad Keeler Artwares piece. My grandfather, like his father before him, was a gifted artist and modeler. Again, with a discerning eye, one can pretty easily see the difference between a Keeler bird and a non-Keeler bird.

This past weekend, my husband and I found ourselves in the vicinity of the same antique store where we have had good luck in the past, Victoria's Attic. 

Victoria's Attic is a sprawling antique mall in the Coachella Valley, famous for a mid-century modern aesthetic. A good place to find tchotchkes from my grandfather's era. In the same case where I found the beautiful fish service dish, I spotted a bird. It was/is labeled Brad Keeler, but looking at it through the glass I was 90% certain that it absolutely wasn't. Still, I asked them to open the case so I could inspect it. 

Here is the bird, next to an authentic piece for reference, on the right, one from my mom's collection that I took a photo of yesterday in her kitchen.

The first thing I want to you notice is where the eye goes when you look at these. Like any good artistic composition, the eye is drawn to a focal point, then moves around the piece finally landing back on the focal point.

The piece on the left is kind of a hodge-podge. The eye doesn't know where to go. All of the elements are in competition with one another so it's sort of hard to look at. Look at the branch that the bird is perched on. It's heavy, and the decoration on both the bird and the branch is sloppy. And the color of the branch overpowers the color of the bird.

Now look at the piece on the right. Where does your eye go first? Yes, to the bird. Note the detail on the wing, little scallops like feathers. The tail is delicate. The glaze colors do not compete and instead complement each other. Also, note the birds' eyes: the one on left has a little splotch of paint for an eye; the one on the right has a detailed eye, and if you look closely, you can see there is tiny wedge of white representing where the light is glinting. [Note: My photo is too low-res to see this, but click here and zoom in on this one on eBay--note the tiny "pie slice" of white.] This is a characteristic feature of Keeler birds and most if not all of the figural work. There is also the characteristic crazing to look for.

Once you know what to look for, it's not hard to identify an authentic piece. So how is it that this antiques dealer has his bird marked as Brad Keeler? I checked the base and there is no signature, which is how the typical birds are identified--a signature etched into the un-fired clay itself. 

I offer you this piece of advice: Just because something is identified by a dealer as an authentic Keeler piece, or it says "Brad Keeler" in the description, does not mean that it is. Don't be fooled by imposters or unscrupulous or simply ill-informed dealers. Had the dealer been on-hand at the store on Sunday, I would have given them this quick tutorial.

Alas, I just hope that other dealers who are looking to the internet for identification might happen upon my blog. To anyone out there reading this, I am always happy to look at pictures and give you my assessment--which is not to say that I know everything, but what I know, I'm happy to share.