Ear on Chicago; Unidentified 3

This is the story of Finley Galeries, one of the nation's leading organizations devoted to the collection and selling of art objects. Finley Galeries is located at 320 South Michigan Avenue, just a few doors away from Chicago's famed art institute. Some of America's finest art is housed here. Our guide today will be the owner, Mr. Wally Finley. Although a story of this nature should probably begin with the painting itself, allow me to reverse the pattern somewhat. Now, that sound is the sound of a saw, which is cutting a frame, which will be put onto a picture, and this is the start of our story. We start with the gentleman who is known as a joiner, and we're going to find out just exactly what that term means. The joiner is Frank Scrippjack, and Frank just cut a frame, part of a frame, of a picture on this large saw. Put the frame in a miter box, and the saw bit through the frame, and cut it at a 45 degree angle. Now, Frank,

it's easy for us to understand exactly what you're doing here, but probably we should get behind it a little bit further and talk about purposes and so on. First of all, let me describe that you have large racks of frames here, a number of which you have ready even prepared here to cut on your saw. Now, after you cut them at that 45 degree angle, what happens next? Well, you drill a few holes in the saws, in the pieces, wherever it's necessary, and then you put it together. Now, that is the next operation. What do you call that? Drilling and joining. Well, now you've just cut a piece over here, Frank, so why don't we go to the next step, which is just a few steps away from here, and that is what is called joining. That's right. And joining means just exactly what the word indicates, and he's going to join two pieces of a frame together. He's putting one in a vice, and the other one he's bringing up at a 45 degree angle, to make the corner of the frame. Now, first of all, Frank, you're putting something on it. What is that? It's a glue. You're going to glue it together first. That's right. That's what you call a joining glue, the best there is on the market. All right. Well, you go ahead and

put your glue on, and I'll describe a little bit of the operation. It's a golden brown frame, and a rather large one, a very handsome frame I might add. He's glued the ends now, and he's putting them together, and now the nailing comes. He's already drilled his holes. Put in three nails as you could hear. Now, he's using a nail punch to counter -sync those nails. Now, Frank, after you have those nail holes countersunked, the nails are sunk into the frame. What happens? You

turn the piece around, and take the next piece to complete the frame. And then after the operation is completed, what about filling up the nail holes? Then we take a little putty, and fill up the holes with the putty, and take our paint, whatever is necessary, and touch it up. Then as far as you're concerned, your operation is concluded, the frame is constructed. That's right. What happens to the frame then, Frank? Then it goes to the next process. All right. We want to thank you very much for telling us about your operation. Thank you. That was Frank Scrippjack, who is the joiner here at Finley Galleries. Now, as he said, the next operation is finishing. And we're going to move over there, and talk to the man who does that work. And that is Jim Raypin, who is the finisher. Jim, you have several pieces of molding here, and one is put together in a large frame. This large frame is apparently somewhat finished. Is this about in the medium stage, would you say? It's almost to the finished stage, it only needs what we call toning to finish it up. Now, Jim, let's start at the beginning. First of

all, we have brought a frame over from Frank, and you're prepared to go to work on it. Now, this is the raw molding already made into a frame. Is that right? That's correct. What kind of wood would you call that? That's popular. All right. Now, what's your first step? The first step would be to sand this down carefully until it's smooth, and then seal it with a wood sealer. And then over that, put a surfacing material, which would depend on what color you might want to show through, if it happens to be that sort of finish. We might put red on it, we might put white, we might put yellow. And this particular one happens to be gold, is that right? This happens to be all gold, this one that you see finished here. We're standing at the desk now of Mr. Walter Becker, who is the format of the shop. And a little earlier, we said that we started with our picture, and then we went to the frame. But actually, there's a little bit of work before that, and that's handled by a water. And that's the orders that come in. Now, how do you handle that water? Well, we have to prepare a reflector, put a

switch on it, and then, of course, every reflector has to be toned to match the frame that it's intended for. Well, how do you know what these frames are intended for? What about those original orders? They come in from customers? Oh, yeah. Well, Mr. Finley sells them, Mr. Rafferty sells them, and we know what frames they're intended for, so we tone them to match the frames. And also to fit the frame. Or fit the picture. Yes. Now, this is a lighting fixture right here in front of us. Is this typical of the lighting fixtures that you mount on the frame? Yes. This is a two light. We have a two light. We have one light. We have miniatures. Two sizes of miniatures, four and a half inches, the five and a half inch, and then we have three lights, four lights, large shelves. This particular one has fluorescent lighting, does it not? No, this is what they call inside frost, reflector light. Oh, it just looks like a fluorescent light. Well, inside of that is a mirror. Yes, that's for reflection. That's for reflection, yes. Well,

now, why don't you go right ahead and do some of this work? What is the first step in finishing or toning the lighting fixture? See, I just apply this here. But I've prepared this here for just these colors, you know? I see, what is that? This is a aluminum paint, water paint. And we put a spray over that after it's dry, so that it doesn't come off. While Walter is talking, he's actually doing the work. Dipped his brush in a small can, and is now painting this fixture. Just about completed the operation. And a little while ago, we saw a completed light fixture. As Mr. Fendley said, they come in usually, or sometimes at least, in gold color. Now, after you've finished painting this, you're dabbing it with a cloth here. Walter, what's the purpose there?

Well, of course, it has to be smooth. And some of them have to be wiped instead of stippled. This is stippled because the ornament on the frame is more stippled effect and a wiping effect. Now, all you have to do now after you finish stippling is to wait for it to dry. Wait for it to dry, and then we put a spray over it. What about glass? Where does that come into the picture? Well, of course, we order the glass, and when the fitter fits the frame, while then, of course, the first thing is cut a glass in it, and then a bag. Do you cut that glass here? Yes, the fitter does that. Now, that scratching sound, you heard, of course, was a glass cutter moving along the edge of the glass. And then, Walter took, and just broke off a piece of the glass, and then it's just about ready for fitting into the frame. Well, Walter, thank you very much for talking

to us about this operation here. You're welcome. And I think, Mr. Finley, perhaps our next step is really something that maybe becomes before all this, and that's the picture. And a lot of times you have to restore pictures, don't you? That's right. We do a great deal of restoration for different museums, different collectors, people from all over the country that send our paintings into us to have them cleaned, restored, and in some cases, have holes that have been punched in them, have those repaired. Now, why do we go to where you do the restoration and do some talking? We'll go up in front where we have very good daylight that we do this work in. Right. We've come up to now what is called a restoration room here at Finley Galleries. It's a well -lighted room, which overlooks Michigan Avenue. And then across the Michigan Avenue is the park. Mr. Finley, do you have this room, especially in this location for lighting? Yes, we built this room in this location, so we'd have daylight. Daylights, one of the most

important things in any restoration work that has to be done. Now, this is an extremely interesting part of your operation, and I suppose that it's also an important one, as well as interesting. Do you have a lot of customers who bring in old paintings to have them restored? Yes, we have a great many customers, museums, different art collectors that are continually bringing paintings in to be not only cleaned and restored, but also to have holes that have been punched in them repaired. And we are able to do that. We rely on them either on canvas or on panel, and then they are properly cleaned by removing all of the dirt and varnish off with various chemicals. I might explain, perhaps you might be a little modest to say it over the air, Mr. Finley. I might explain that Finley Gallery is in Chicago is probably noted for its restoration more than anything else. Is that true? Equally as much as anything else, because we have people coming in from all over the country that we're doing work for.

Well, now let's get into the process itself. First of all, let me say that Irving Cohn is the man that does the restoring. Now we have, before us, a large painting. Perhaps you could tell us just a little bit about the painting before we go into the actual work. Well, this is a large painting that's painted along the Thames by an English artist by the name of Paul. The painting is very dirty. It's covered with the very dark brown color, which has changed the original color tremendously. We're going to take off some of that brown color to bring back, to take it back to the original color, which is a light blue. Now the sky itself, of course, is really a dirty brown, as it is right now. You can hardly see the blue at all. That's right. What we could do is even to cut through on part of the clouds to give a little idea of how much brighter they will come out. After all, a painting in order to be enjoyed must be seen in the

original condition. The only way that you can take it back to the original condition is to remove all of the dirt and grime that has accumulated over a period of many years. Well, now let's have Mr. Cohen go through that operation, and we can describe it just briefly. He's taken a small piece of cotton and dipped it into a solution, and he's rubbing that piece of cotton now on the very edge, top edge, and outer edge of the painting. Now, of course, that is still part of the sky up there. What is that solution he's using? The solution that he's using is alcohol, which he plans to stop with a solution of turpentine. The turpentine has a tendency to keep the alcohol from cutting any further into the original paint. At the present time, he's not removed any of the original paint, only the surface, dirt, and varnish. I was going to ask you that you have to be cautious in this work, I would imagine, to keep from harming the painting at all. That's very true, otherwise you can easily cut through the paint

even to the priming of the canvas. Another great problem that we find in so many paintings is the fact that paintings come to us which have been restored previously. Some of the rest restores in doing this work have had to fill holes in the canvas, they've had to repaint it, and then when we go about our job of reconditioning the painting, we can very easily remove the restoration, the repainting of the previous restore, so we have to be very, very careful, otherwise we just make two jobs out of one. Now, while we were talking, he finished that small segment of the painting and you can see that it's going to come out a nice blue. Yes, that is the original color you see of the painting, and you can see by the contrast how much brighter it is and how much dirt is accumulated over a period of many, many years. Now this is an extremely large painting, how long will it take him to finish this? This

painting he'll probably remove the varnish in about a half a day, and then after it's removed, it's put away to dry, and any work that has to be done from the standpoint of filling in cracks or repainting that will be done at a later date. And then following that, after that has thoroughly dried, it will be re -varnished with a transparent varnish which will show the original color. I think that pretty much tells a story of restoration, but I can't leave without mentioning some of the other paintings here that he's working on, and I'd like for you, Mr. Fendley if you tell us briefly what the painting is and then what he's going to do with it. Well we're looking at an early primitive religious subject which was painted on panel. This painting had over a hundred cracks, very deep crevices in the painting. Irving has had to clean it thoroughly, then fill these cracks in, and then rematch the color to bring it back to the original color. Now here's a painting up here that has a great many cracks in it,

just one right after another. How does that sort of thing happen? Well the painting that we're looking at is one that has not been cared for at all well over the period of time. It has been allowed to be dirty for too long, the color has dried out and has cracked so that the surface of the painting has over a thousand cracks in it. This painting we will rely on either panel or linen and iron it down and put it in the press so that when we finish with it none of the cracks will be visible. I wanted to mention the lack of machinery that they have up here and that they're doing most of their work by hand because normally when we cover an industry in Chicago or the Chicago area we hear a great deal of sounds but in this particular business you won't hear too many sounds, only the sounds of voices of artists who work up here. Now we would like to go downstairs, we've just about finished the

shop, I guess we have completed our discussion of the shop up here and we want to go downstairs and talk about some of the showing of the paintings and sculpture by the way that Mr. Fendley has. We've come out of the main display rooms of Fendley galleries and magnificently furnished a room in which there are a number of paintings and sculptures. Before we actually get into the story Mr. Fendley I'd like for you to give us somewhat of a background on Fendley galleries, how did it all start? Well in 1870 my grandfather moved to Kansas City from Cincinnati and at that time started Fendley galleries there. He had four sons, two of whom were very much interested in the galleries and they in turn carried it on. Later on my father bought his other brothers interest in the gallery and with his children which happens to be my generation conducted the galleries after about 1928. When did they move to Chicago? In 1932 my father sent me to

Chicago and we opened our place here on Michigan Avenue in that year. Chicago of course has been wonderful to us, we've made a great many wonderful friends and placed great many paintings and important collections and museums as well as many of the fine offices and homes of this great city. Do you find that you find Chicago then a great city for art? Chicago is a wonderful city for art. Chicago is a great city, one of the great cities of the world. If the person can't make a success in Chicago he can't make it anywhere. Mr. Fendley, where we're standing we're looking at it as I said earlier some paintings and some sculpture and they're almost all of the west. Would you tell us about them? These paintings and sculpture that you see are by Frederick Remington and Charlie Russell for the most part. Remington of course started with my grandfather in Kansas City. My grandfather had great confidence in this man as an artist as well as in a

sculptor and sold his early paintings. From then on we've enjoyed handling the work of this great western artist. How have your father and yourself fitted into the Remington work? You had to purchase some of it I know yourself. Yes we've bought a great many as matter of fact my father some years ago paid $7 ,500 for a painting that my grandfather sold for $275. Is that right? Yes and then some years later we bought one at auction for $23 ,000 which was the highest price that any Remington has ever brought and this particular painting my grandfather had in his gallery at less than $1 ,000. What sort of a man was Remington? Remington was a large man, a very capable man, a man who whatever he went into he did well. He went to Yale University and was better known there for

his football achievements. Is that right? Then he was for painting. How did he start into painting of the West? Well he was always interested in cowboys and Indians from an early age. When he finished his Yale he decided to go West so he headed toward Kansas City and that was where my grandfather first met him. Remington was born back in the 1860s wasn't he? Yes he was born in 1861. So when he was in the West he saw the rest of the West in its raw stages. He certainly did. It was rough and rugged just like Fred Remington. Well suppose we could reminisce all day long about his life but I suppose it would be better now to talk about his work and his work is surrounding us. Let's start over here. This is a Remington bronze work is it? Yes this bronze is one known as the scalp. This was one that was done by the

Roman bronze works who took over the work of casting Remington's bronze is after the bonar foundry had burned to the ground. Now what about in the other room? Let's just walk over here and here is one of the largest that we have seen and this is really a magnificent piece of work. This is the famous Broncobuster by Fred Recremington which is one of is the largest single figure that he did. We have all together about 17 different subjects here. They represent all different kinds of subjects from the famous Stampede which is a large bronze that has some four cattle and a rider to some of the smaller bronze is which are only the size of a head. And almost all of the work that we've seen there's a great deal of action isn't there? Yes Fred Recremington was known for

action. He was known as one of the greatest draftsmen of horses and everything that he did he did it to the best of his ability. Well you can almost feel the action in this work and amazingly enough it seems a paradox that we can stand in front of something that is not exactly action but at the same time it's it's a beautiful work of a horse and a rider coming down a mountainside I guess isn't it? Yes this one is known as the mountain man. This horse and rider coming down this stiff this steep cliff and the horse hangs his head very close to the ground as if he were almost smelling the ground in order to be sure that he's sure footed. You can sure tell that he's picking his way down. Oh yes. Now what about painting? We've talked briefly about sculpture and I want to talk a little bit more about it when we move up to the front of the galleries but what about painting? You have some paintings by Remington I'm sure. Yes we have probably the most famous one that we have is the famous Apache fire signal which

is a painting that was done at night. The moonlight is the most beautiful effect that I have ever seen achieved at that time of night. The soft colors you can feel them scintillating down from the heavens and the color the contrast and all is simply magnificent. That fire in the background certainly brings out a great deal of depth in that picture and shows dimension. Is that the campfire? That is a fire signal. The Indian has lit this fire as a signal to the members of his tribe. Before we leave this room and walk up towards the front mr. Finley I'd like to ask you just briefly about the price on these sculpture work here. How much would you sell them for if you would sell them at all? Well we were have 17 different subjects of the Remington's and before I bought the last one of one of our great clients was very much interested in buying the 16 which I had at the time and he offered me $150 ,000 for

them but of course I couldn't sell them too much like selling a member of our own family because of the association with Remington and my grandfather. These bronzes we intend to keep and eventually will probably give to some foundation. Same goes for the paintings and the various other western things which we have. Yes and I want to mention that also briefly that you do have some rustle paintings. Yes we have about 15 different paintings in watercolor and oil by Charlie Russell and those of course are also in this great exhibition which we're holding right now. Now there are some more Remington's and some more rustles up front as we said earlier and several of them some of the most magnificent I believe are in the display window out on Michigan Avenue. Suppose you and I walk up there and as we do I'd like to ask you about some of the things that we're passing. This dinnerware for example that's all part of the Finley galleries. Where does that fit into the picture? Well my wife and sister

of course are very much interested in the galleries and spend a great deal of time down here. My wife has charge of the China and crystal departments. My sister has charge of the silver department. We have done a great business in this sort of thing and have been able to display the finest China crystal silver that money can buy. After this room to our left there are some more Remington's and I'd like for you to tell us a to me was one of the most impressive works of art by Remington that I saw. Yes the rattlesnake is one of his most famous bronze. As a matter of fact there were two different versions of that done. The larger one was done in a much larger edition. The smaller one in which there were only six cast is one of the rarest ones that there is available today on the market. You look at that you can feel that snake almost striking. That's very true you can see his fangs hanging out

just ready to attack. And that's amazing is it not in bronze work to see that? Remington of course was a great artist, a great sculptor and a man who knew anatomy. He was had practically a photographic eye and that's one reason that we have always found his work so enjoyable because it was true to nature. His drawing was perfect as far as the horse and rider was concerned. Now we've reached the display windows and suppose you tell us just exactly what some of these bronze works are. The one on the north side is the famous coming through the rye which is one of the largest bronze is that Remington ever did. It portrays four drunken cowboys on Saturday riding at full tilt, shooting in the air. And if you'll notice Mr. Hill some of these cowboys are about to fall out of their saddle. It's so drunk. Yes I can see that. But it's one of the most spectacular and one of the most pleasing and one of the most

outstanding bronze is as far as action is concerned that we've ever had. Suppose Remington might be one of those riders? Well I wouldn't be a bit surprised. He was a wonderful horseman and he certainly enjoyed his bottle as well. Well now this of course is really fantastic some of this work by Remington and that particular one especially. I think that's probably the reason you have it in the window is it because it's the most outstanding one. Yes that's true. We were very fortunate we bought it a few months ago from one of our good dealer friends in New York who acquired it for us from the Rockefeller family. We're very proud to have this bronze and this is one that we will always keep. Mr. Fendley as we near the close of the show I would like to ask you if someone were to say what's the purpose of Fendley galleries what would your answer be? Well I think my answer would be the reason that we're in business today is to render service. Another reason that

Fendley galleries exist is because my wife and sister enjoy it so much and I guess the other reason is because I to get a great thrill out of operating this place which my grandfather started some 86 years ago. I think anybody that's been listening to this half -hour would conclude that you're extremely interested in this kind of work. Well this is my life and as long as I'm alive I intend to operate this place and to try to do it the best that it can be done in the world. This has been the story of Fendley galleries noted throughout the world as one of the leading collectors of art objects. This is Hugh Hill speaking.