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The Eagle Mascot
Rolls-Royce motor cars are well recognized by a radiator mascot that has been an integral part of the marque since 1911. Originally designed and made by sculptor Charles Sykes, these mascots have been produced in a variety of sizes and on several models, the "Spirit of Ecstasy" can also be kneeling. Originally, early Rolls-Royces had no particular mascot and owners could adorn their cars with whatever took their fancy. The original Spirit of Ecstasy, now so well-known among lovers of fine motor cars, originally appeared on the Barker bodied Silver Ghost tourer of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, the man who initiated her creation at a time when the most "tasteless of mascots" were to be seen perched upon the radiators of British cars.
An agreement was drawn up between the Company and Charles Sykes in 1911 and in that year the Company announced that "arrangements are being made by which an owner of a Rolls-Royce may acquire one of these figureheads for a few pounds". Sykes was to be the sole maker of the mascots for as long as he was able. In 1928 Jo, Charles Sykes" daughter took over the finishing of the individual mascots. Today, Rolls-Royce motor cars still feature the Spirit of Ecstasy (also known as the Flying Lady) on the radiator and is probably the most recognizable of all radiator mascots.
Recently I had the pleasure of making a Rolls-Royce mascot for a 1912 Barker bodied Cabriolet. In 1912 the Spirit of Ecstasy was still an optional extra, so the current owners decided that they too could show their individuality by having their own mascot. The owners had done some research and had found Frederick Henry Royce"s insignia - an eagle with outstretched wings and a twig of fruit in its mouth. The motto, adopted by the Company from Royce"s words Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarvm ("Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble, Royce 1924) is emblazoned beneath the bird. My job was to turn this graphic into a three dimensional sculpture.
I started with green carving wax, a particularly hard material which will take good detail and can be handled almost like metal. Using the sketch as a cartoon, the image was placed on the wax by piercing the paper with a sharp object and leaving a dot pattern on the wax. This is a traditional method of transferring a design, especially used in the weaving and cloth industries. From this outline a rough form was sawn out of the wax using a jeweller"s saw. From the rather crude cutout I then used a paring knife and various other sharp instruments to carve out the shape of the bird. Right from the beginning I had made the decision to only cast the body of the bird and construct its wings and the branch of fruit.
The commissioner of this project lives in Sydney and through the convenience of today's technology; I was able to communicate with the client almost on a daily basis while I asked him questions like "how detailed do you want the feathers?" Taking an almost abstract image into a realistic three-dimensional form was an interesting task as the client wanted it to look stroke by stroke as the original sketch. Fortunately the hard green carving wax allowed for this detail to be included in the wax. It can actually be carved, filed and with 0000 steel wool, the surface burnished to obtain a good clean finished surface.
Another question "do you want the rope the eagle is sitting on to be round, or square?" Round was the affirmative. Then "do you want the eagle to have a tail?" Don't all eagles have tails? came the reply. This of course presented challenges as I had to interpret the almost abstract sketch into a feasible bird. Out came the reference books and I studied all types of eagles - how their feathers lay, how their wings operated as they landed, their tongues, how their beaks joined their necks and the way the feathers joined the hard bony beak. Finally the eagle looked like a bird while maintaining its abstraction. I then hollowed out the body trying to maintain an even thickness for efficiency in casting. The total mass of the wax is critical as it was to be lost wax cast (cire perdue). When the silver is cooling it all needs to be of similar thickness otherwise there will be serious breakdowns in the surfaces causing cracks and imperfections.
Eventually with the client's approval, the wax was sent to Palloys in Sydney for casting. There it underwent two procedures. First, the original wax was invested and cast. From this casting a rubber mould was taken and a second wax injected, invested and cast. This was the item that was returned to me for finishing. We wanted to have a mould just in case the eagle had to be replaced at any stage. There is an agreement between the client and myself that no more will be made, but I felt a mould was needed to be kept for the future.
The casting arrived back at my workshop and I was particularly pleased with the result. Because of the preliminary work done on the wax, there was very little finishing to be done. No pits, nor fins which made my job easier.
The wings are cut from 1.5mm silver plate. There are three layers and each feather is hand-carved and engraved into the surface. Before the engraving and carving took place, I textured the surface by roller-printing both sides of the metal. This was achieved by using sandpaper. When sandpaper and metal is passed through the rollers of a rolling mill, a negative impression is left on the metal of all the fine grit of the sandpaper. To protect the rolling mill and to achieve the correct impression a sandwich is made; in this case it was a sheet of brass, a sheet of sandpaper, the silver, another sheet of sandpaper then another sheet of brass. I quite often use this method of achieving a "frosted" texture as it is very pleasing to look at and to touch. The look is very similar to sandblasting, but is deeper and longer lasting. This gave the feathers that special fluffy organic look before the veining was engraved into the metal.
After the wings were textured, carved and soldered together, each wing was then riveted to the body of the eagle, hammered and soldered so they became an integral part of the bird's body.
The eagle was then thoroughly cleaned and polished. Because of the texture on the body and wings, they were left as a natural surface. I highly polished the beak and eye balls to give the eagle more menacing look and draw attention to the beak which was to hold the all important branch.
Perhaps one of the most challenging parts of the project was the making of the branch and enamelling the fruit. The leaves were cut out of 1.5mm fine silver sheet and a small tapered stem was hard soldered onto the leaf. Veining to the leaves was added by hammering and stamping. I left the rough saw marks on the edges and enhanced them by taking the stamping right to the edge. The fruit - we still cannot decide whether it is an apple or a cherry, was formed in two pieces using dapping blocks. It was soldered together using 18ct. yellow gold hard solder. I had read that the solder would not break down under the extreme heat needed to do the enamelling. The stems were added to the leaves using this method as well. After the 'ball' was formed and the two pieces soldering together, I indented the fruit to give it an 'apple' like appearance. Both the leaves and the fruit were enamelled using high-firing vitreous enamel (800 degrees C). The leaves only needed two firings, but the fruit was problematic and was fired a number of times before a satisfactory surface was achieved.
The branch of the tree was grade-rolled and finished to achieve an elegant taper, to which the leaves were soldered. The fruit could not be soldered into place as it may have exploded with no air-hole to allow for the expansion of the metal while being heated. The next soldering challenge was to solder the branch into the eagle's beak. Here, there is the solid mass of the bird, holding the branch in its beak and tongue and the fragile mass of the branch itself. With silver, all metal must be of an even temperature to achieve a perfect solder joint. If the branch became too hot, it would have melted and with 720 grams of silver, it took a lot of heat in the right places for the solder to flow at around 800 degrees centigrade. My heart was in my mouth as I tried to achieve this very difficult joining of metals. With not a degree of heat to spare, I managed to achieve correct results without melting anything. Phew!
Last job before setting the fruit in place was to once again go over the bird burnishing his feathers and giving the beak a final polish. The fruit was put in place with an 18ct. yellow gold sleeve looking like a leaf sprout, and pressure fitted with synthetic binder to hold it into place.
Mr. Eagle was now ready to be attached to the 'town cap'. Before attaching the branch, I had added a small extension to the base of the rope to accommodate the tail which also provided a platform to attach the mechanism for securing the mascot to the town cape. Picture a short cone with a flat top and a hole in the centre. On top of the platform I soldered a brass nut. This nut would then be up inside the bird when the cone is soldered onto the base of the bird (remember the bird is hollow). The town cap also has a hole in the centre to accommodate a metal thread (brass). By screwing the thread up into the bird, adding washers and nuts the complete mascot is then firmly secured to the town cap ready to be screwed onto the radiator opening. The eagle was now ready to fly.
Footnote: I delivered the eagle to the client as the Annual Federal Rally of the Rolls-Royce Owners" Club in Orange, NSW. It caused quite a stir when it was finally screwed into place. Two years previous, I had made a traditional enamel name plate for "Edwina", and together they looked like they had been there since 1912. Special thanks also to my "able" assistant who sourced all the correct (vintage) threaded nuts and bolts and was the extra hands when needed.
The eagle weighed 720 grams of Sterling and Fine Silver and had over 500 hand-carved feathers. Height 140mm. It took approximately 108 hours to make.
1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with "Edwina" name plate and Eagle mascot.
