The Chiswick Connection With The RAF 'Eagle' Memorial

Ercole Parlanti's family seeking local help to erect civic plaque to acclaimed bronze founder

Ercole James Parlanti, long term resident of Fielding Road, was one of the most important people in the British art world from the end of the Victorian era. His work as an acclaimed art bronze founder, can be seen in the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens and the huge bronze eagle atop the RAF Memorial on Victoria Embankment, directly opposite the London Eye.

Ercole’s great grandson, Steve Parlanti, has been researching and writing on his great grandfather’s achievements for some 12 years or so, including running a website and publishing a book. His attention has turned to getting some form of permanent recognition to mark Ercole’s achievements.

Following an application to Ealing Civic Society to have a Green Plaque erected at Ercole’s former home, 2 Fielding Road, W4, a plaque has been approved on its merits for 2020. Ercole moved into Fielding Road in the 1930s, and having raised his family, stayed there until his death in 1955. The project requires funding and Steve Parlanti (pictured below),is hoping that some local group or organisation will come forward to help.

The role of the bronze founder has often been overlooked, but without them the sculptors of the period were unable to transfer their works into bronze, despite many having tried and failed.

Having arrived in the UK as a young man from his native Rome in the late 1890’s, Ercole, along with his brother Alessandro, set up an art bronze foundry in Parsons Green, London. They were both skilled in the Lost Wax (Cire Perdue) method of casting, having trained at the Fonderia Nelli in Rome. At the time, British sculptors were struggling to find competent art bronze founders to cast the sculptor’s works into bronze by anything other than the less favourable Sand method.

The arrival of Ercole allowed sculptors working in Britain to have their works faithfully transferred into bronze by an ancient method which, for some time, had been forgotten in Britain. The Lost Wax method allows the smallest of details to be replicated in the bronze, the sculptor's thumb print for example.

Throughout his career, Ercole cast for all the top sculptors of the time, Sir Alfred Gilbert, William Goscombe John, Edward Onslow Ford, Sir Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Eric Gill and many others. In August 1905 Alessandro returned to live in Rome permanently, leaving Ercole to run the foundry on his own. Works cast by Ercole during this period included the magnificent Peter Pan bronze statue in Kensington Gardens (Ercole also cast the 6 replicas which are to be found worldwide).

Following the end of WW1, Ercole moved premises to run his own foundry at West Kensington. The end of WW1 sparked a huge demand for war memorials, and many of those to be found throughout the world were cast by Ercole.

1923 saw the casting of what was probably Ercole’s crowning moment, Reid-Dick’s Golden Eagle which sits atop the R.A.F.Memorial on London’s Embankment (see photo at the top of the page). The Eagle has a wing-span of twelve feet and weighs four tons. The monument was unveiled by the future Edward VIII and George VI and made the front page of national newspapers at the time. The Royal Air Force Memorial is a military memorial on the Victoria Embankment in central London, dedicated to the memory of the casualties of the Royal Air Force in World War I (and, by extension, all subsequent conflicts). Unveiled in 1923, it became a Grade II listed structure in 1958, and was upgraded to Grade II* in 2018. It is considered to be the official memorial of the RAF and related services.

Looking out over the river Thames its position, opposite the London Eye, remains one of the most prominent in all of London. The Fulham Chronicle, when writing about the Eagle in 1923, stated ‘Through the activity and technical skill of the Art Bronze Foundry in Beaumont Road in West Kensington, Fulham has already earned world-wide distinction as the birth-place of noted Memorials’.

Close to retirement, Ercole continued to cast on a smaller scale. All of Gordon Crosby’s original prototypes for the Jaguar mascot were cast by Ercole (with those that were not needed returned for melting down), and Ercole had also cast all of Gordon Crosby’s earlier bronzes. Nearing 68 years old, and living in Chiswick with his workshop in Acton Lane nearby, Ercole was still active.

From museum pieces to public monuments, from small gold medals, silver spoons and polychrome maquettes to huge statues, the Parlantis have cast them all.

Ercole died in 1955 in Acton Hospital, and a small obituary appeared in the Foundry Trade Journal of November 3rd that year. It simply said ‘The death is announced of Mr. E.J.Parlanti-a well known art founder-at the age of 84. He was responsible for many of the notable pieces of statuary in this country, such as, for instance, the 17 ton gilt-bronze eagle-the R.A.F. Memorial on Westminster Embankment. Not only was he an art founder, but also a sculptor of eminence and, in addition, was the author of Art Bronze Castings (sic)’. Only Conrad, of Ercole’s three children, continued in bronze casting.

As Steve Parlanti attempts to raise the necessary funds to see this plaque come to fruition in 2020, he is asking that any local individuals or businesses who may be interested in either part or full sponsorship, contact him either at steveparlanti@hotmail.com, or through the foundry website at www.parlantibronzefoundries.co.uk.

March 6, 2020