Terra Cotta Friezes
Three commemorative terra cotta panels depict four military men surrounding the City seal. Twice the City Hall Commission had ordered the panels changed, the first for military accuracy and the second time for “inappropriate” facial expressions. Tradition holds that Stickney, or a much angered craftsman, created in the granite face caricatures of the City Hall Commissioners. One of the cavalrymen also held a bronze bugle in his hand which has since been lost.
These friezes were carved by the artist Henry Plasschaert (1861 – 1940)– sculptor from Ghent, Belgium who emigrated to the United States in 1881. He was a very talented and highly regarded sculptor, who resided primarily in the Philadelphia area. He taught modeling at UPenn from 1892-1897, was the head of the Decorative Sculpture Department run at the school by the Philadelphia Museum of Art during that same time. He was also listed as a professor of sculpture at the Pennsylvania Museum of Arts and School of Industrial Arts in 1894. Later in life he worked for the Boston Terra Cotta Company and later for Stephen, Leach and Conklin Company of Philadelphia.
His work is known throughout the Northeast, including the UPenn gargoyles which are vivid including an animal biting the stone, mythical creatures, and even a monkey holding a diploma, the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, CT, various banks, community buildings, and even a vaudeville venue, the Colonial Theater in Hagerstown, MD, which he signed his work. Rumor has it that he is the only terra cotta artists that is known to have signed his work on the façade of a NYC building, which was the German American Shooting Club building in the St. Mark’s district of NY.