The Mare, in Bronze
A bronze horse portrait for a 65th birthday
The ask
My wife has ridden the same mare for nineteen years, and the mare is getting old. My wife turns sixty-five in the spring, and I'd like a sculptor to make a bronze of the mare while she is still with us. Something for the hall table, not a statue. Around $20k.
The gift
A bronze of the mare at about one-sixth life size, some 40 cm nose to tail, modeled in clay from life by an equine sculptor over several visits to the yard, then cast by the lost-wax method at a fine-art foundry as an edition of one. The patina is chosen with him, and the base carries the mare's name. It is delivered in a fitted crate and set on the hall table by hand.
Why it's extraordinary
It is made while the mare is alive and standing in front of the sculptor, so the bronze carries her actual build and stance, and there is only one.
The moment
It stands in the hall and is touched on the way out to the stables each morning.
A curator replies within one business day.
