M. Saint Olive: A bronze relief plaque of a water sprite from the ship T/N Michelangelo signed M

M. Saint Olive: A bronze relief plaque of a water sprite from the ship T/N Michelangelo signed M Saint Olive, and with foundry lozenge mark Valsuani 51cm.; 20ins high by 108cm.; 42½ins wide The T/N Michelangelo was launched on September 16, 1962 in Sestri shipyards. She sailed from Genoa to New York, the Caribbean and Rio de Janeiro. With the increasing costs of oil and Union demands the Italian government announced that subsidies would be withdrawn in 1975. Michelangelo and her sister ship the Rafaello wre sold to the Shah of Iran as barracks for army personnel. The were finally scrapped in Pakistan in 1991. the Valsuani foundry was started in the 1899 by the brothers Claude and Attilio Valsuani. Casting mostly small works for various artists using the lost wax technique (cire perdue) they worked for Renoir, Picasso Despiau, Paul Troubetzkoy, Matisse and Gaugin amongst others. Claude Valsuani died in 1923, but his son Marcele continued to produce fine quality bronzes until the 1970’s.