{"id":13770,"date":"2019-12-08T20:56:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T01:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=13770"},"modified":"2019-12-08T20:56:14","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T01:56:14","slug":"when-23rd-chestnut-streets-had-a-there-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2019\/12\/when-23rd-chestnut-streets-had-a-there-there\/","title":{"rendered":"When 23rd & Chestnut Streets had a There There"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Florentine Art Plaster Company, 2217-2219 Chestnut Street, October 17, 1911 (PhillyHistory.org) – 2nd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A handsome pair of facades at the northeast corner of 23rd<\/sup> and Chestnut Streets. Reading from the left: a cluster of bold, brick arches up, down and across an otherwise modest, two-story structure. Gilt letters and what must be a red cross on the glass doors announce the occupant. Here\u2019s the Philadelphia School for Nurses, founded seventeen years earlier and formerly in rented space on Walnut Street, east of Broad. The nurses bought this site only five years before this 1911 view, bringing architect Clyde Smith Adams in to design a training school, dormitories and dispensary. A practical design, with a flourish in a first-floor window taken from a Florentine Renaissance palazzo.<\/p>\n

Perhaps architect Adams meant this as a playful reference to the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale? Or a snappy rejoinder to \u201cFlorentine Art Plaster Co. Art Gallery” next door? Or possibly both?<\/p>\n

Nearly falling off the edge of the image, a bit further to the right (east), we see a fragment of a one-story building offering up the barest of clues. \u201cStephen\u2026Stone Carv\u2026\u201d it reads. A quick Google search turns up an issue of a journal titled Rock Products<\/em><\/a> published in Louisville, Kentucky in 1906. We’re at the studio of Stephen Cazzulo, sculptor, who, we learn, \u201cis busy getting out models for the large Lafayette Building<\/a>” at Fifth and Chestnut Streets. Cazzulo “is an expert in his line and has done work on nearly all the skyscrapers and important structures erected during the last twenty years.\u201d<\/p>\n

A nice payoff for a minimum investment in keystrokes. We don’t always get so lucky.<\/p>\n

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Detail. The Florentine Art Plaster Company, 2217-2219 Chestnut Street, October 17, 1911 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What might we learn about the Florentine Art Plaster Company? Once again, the web provides! The Smithsonian Libraries has in its vast collections a 140-page, illustrated catalogue. Even better, this publication was scanned and mounted online only a few years ago. We like to think that \u00a0Plaster Casts: Reproductions from Antique, Renaissance and Modern Sculpture<\/em><\/a> has been residing in digital purgatory awaiting its fifteen minutes of social media attention. Now, reading the catalogue and perusing the illustrations of more than 2,700 items as we study the archival photograph, we feel an alignment of the research stars.<\/p>\n

At left in the storefront window is a copy of Gian Lorenzo Bernini\u2019s Apollo and Daphne<\/em> on a fancy pedestal. The 4\u20199\u201d pair is listed in the catalogue for $25, the equivalent of $630 today. On the right is Cupid and Psyche<\/em> (not the erotic Antonio Canova version, which is tucked away inside, at the back of the shop) on an identical pedestal. Between the two, with dusky patina, is a bust of Christopher Columbus on a lion-head base. Connecting the dots, we realize the photograph was taken in mid-October, only a few days after Columbus Day. When did this become an official holiday? In Pennsylvania, only two years before.<\/p>\n

The catalogue enables us to virtually transport ourselves through the plate glass of the storefront and into the main aisle of the showroom.<\/p>\n

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View of the main aisle of the showroom of the Florentine Art Plaster Co. Philadelphia, ca. 1914 (Smithsonian Libraries and Archive.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the left we see a row of works starting with a life-size, kneeling Joan of Arc<\/em> by Henri Chapu, listed for $60. Way back in the rear, there\u2019s the unmistakable Nike<\/em>, or Winged Victory of Samothrace<\/em>, one of the largest items in the showroom. It\u2019s a copy of an original in the Louvre<\/a>, in a place of honor atop the main stairs. This one is 5\u2019 3\u201d and is listed for $100, $2,500 in today\u2019s dollars. But you can take home a 3\u2019 version for $15, or a 2\u20194\u201d version for $9, or even a modest priced and sized (7 inch) Victory of Samothrace<\/em> for $1, which amounts to $25 today.<\/p>\n

How about a 20\u201d by 30\u201d copy of Andrea Della Robbia\u2019s terracotta bas-relief of the Madonna and Child? That\u2019ll be $5. Or Michelangelo\u2019s Moses<\/em>? You can choose a 3\u2019 version for $25 or something half that size for a fifth as much.\u00a0 Among other Michelangelo items are his\u00a0Slave<\/em>, 3\u2019 9\u201d at $12 and a 2′ 6″\u00a0David<\/em>\u00a0for $8.<\/p>\n

Interested in Alexander the Great? Bertel Thorvaldsen’s 22-panel opus, The Triumph of Alexander into Babylon <\/em>made in honor of Napoleon\u2019s visit to Rome in 1812 is a whopping $190.<\/p>\n

The array of European\u00a0Who\u2019s Who,\u00a0<\/em>from Byron to Hayden, Chopin to Hugo, Galileo to Faust, Savonarola to Shakespeare, Voltaire to Marie Antoinette\u2014was impressive. That’s not to say a\u00a0constellation of Americans weren’t represented. One could choose from a half dozen versions of Washington, Franklin or Lincoln ranging from $.25 to $20. Or Stephen Girard, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Mark Twain or Ralph Waldo Emerson.<\/p>\n

And on a local level there was Thomas Eakins\u2019 Anatomy of Horse,<\/em> 23\u201d by 30\u201d for $5 and his more modest Skeleton\u00a0of a Horse<\/em>\u00a0for $2.50.<\/p>\n

From its start in 1900, the Florentine Art Plaster Company assured customers \u201cfaithful reproductions of classic subjects.\u201d The \u201cconnoisseur of art” or the student or the teachers would not see any \u201ccheap tawdry ornaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Detail. The Florentine Art Plaster Company, 2217-2219 Chestnut Street, October 17, 1911 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The talent behind the operation? Joseph Mazzoni, who, according to his obituary in 1948, \u201cfirst came here from Italy as an advance agent for the Royal Italian Marine Band and settled here in 1900\u201d to open a studio of sculptural reproductions.<\/p>\n

And now, more than a century later, pausing to look even closer at the storefront, we see a man\u2014why<\/em>,\u00a0could it be the proprietor himself? <\/em>He’s\u00a0looking at us from over Christopher Columbus\u2019 left shoulder. (What a pleasant surprise.)<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s looking [back] at you, Mr.Mazzoni.<\/p>\n

[Sources: \u201cFrom Our Own Correspondents, Philadelphia,\u201d Rock Products<\/a>,<\/em> vol. 5, no. 1; \u00a0Plaster Casts<\/em> reproduced from Antique, Renaissance and Modern Sculpture<\/em> \u2026 made and sold by The Florentine Art Plaster Co<\/em>.<\/a>, Philadelphia, Pa.<\/em>\u00a0(The Company, 1914.); \u201cThe Latest News in Real Estate,\u201d The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 4, 1906; [Obituary] Joseph Mazzoni, The Philadelphia Inquirer,<\/em> August 30, 1948.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A handsome pair of facades at the northeast corner of 23rd and Chestnut Streets. Reading from the left: a cluster of bold, brick arches up, down and across an otherwise modest, two-story structure. Gilt letters and what must be a red cross on the glass doors announce the occupant. Here\u2019s the Philadelphia School for Nurses, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}