[CarltonHendricks]

http://www.sportsantiques.com/basketball.htm
Wow, good thing for Travis....I seriously doubt I'd have remembered that photo...I remember that dealer had good vintage things and I remember that statue now but not the exact details...The photo I took looks plaster but if I specifically referred to it as galvano then it must have been...which is a nice step up from plaster...I can't tell for sure by a photo if yours is galvano or plaster...if it has a strange soft feel to the surface it's probably galvano....For anyone not familiar with galvano it's electroplated copper over plaster...see link above for more info I posted on my basketball page.

The bad news is it's damaged...the good news is it should be able to be repaired....You'll never get the thin layer of copper replaced but I speculate copper colored paint over the filled in plaster would probably look pretty decent if done by a good restorer....that kind of piece I'd take to a ceramics restorer...A good one should have the modeling aptitude to get it right I would think...

Nice piece...like I say a step up from the plaster ones....There was sort of a series of a Joe Louis plaster figures that I think were done by a different company that looked very similar to yours but not quite as nice of definition as I recall....I think that company used the same figure on an ashtray, and they did the statue by it's self...and they put it on a lamp which I have...seems like I had the statue but may have sold it after I got the lamp..Your ashtray is more rare than the one like my lamp...I'd say for every eight of my type there would be two of yours...There is also a kinf of lame carnival chalk Louis statue as I recall that is kind of rare...

http://www.sportsantiques.com/05natpart1.htm
On the subject of glavano boxing pieces....at the 2005 National I saw a 12" statue of a black boxer, not louis...that I missed out on twice... David Perry had sent me a photo of it when he saw it at Brimfield I called the seller but it was sold...then it was alreday sold again when I saw it at the National....see it in Kevin Bronson's booth 7th paragraph down in link above..

Below, shots of my Louis lamp...still has the price tag on it of $500.00 but I doubt I paid that...I seem to recall I paid $300.00...As I recall I got it at the now defunct S.F. Cow Palace show probably around fifteen years ago.


12" tall to top of head