The Leonard Memorial

Monument to Commemorate Our Oldest Iron Foundries.

ELABORATE DESIGNS PREPARED.

This New Work of Art Will Be Erected In a Square at Taunton, Mass.--Charles H. Niehaus Is the Sculptor--Monument Will Be on a Large Scale

The Leonard family were famous in England and Wales for their iron foundries during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in accordance with the spirit of the age they kept the secrets of their art to themselves, handing them down from father to son. About 1651 certain members crossed the Atlantic and established a foundry in Massachusetts, says the New York Times. Two years later one of them went to New Jersey and opened the first furnaces near Rahway. Since that period many of the family have continued in the business, especially those who live at Taunton, Mass. In order to embellish that city and raise a memorial which shall have its foundation stones laid on the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the industry in America the Leonard family intends to place at Taunton a monument on a large scale.

The sculptor is Charles H. Niehaus. He has made two designs consisting of groups of figures about a base, which represents an island in a circular basin of water, and of a shaft rising from the base. In the one the shaft rises about ninety feet in the form of an obelisk, square in section. The plinth has low reliefs, with figures showing man and woman plighting troth, vestal virgins caring for the fire on an altar and other groups, treated in the classical vein, which refer to family life. The groups below are designed for bronze and show the prospector discovering iron ore, the iron master extracting the metal, the smith and the artificer in iron. In this design provision is made for an abundant fall of water which may gush from grottoes on two sides of the island.

The second design is not so tall. Here the groups are more concentrated, the island being smaller and the cascade feature being omitted. Behind the groups, which are also calculated for bronze, rises the base of a granite pedestal, against which tree forms are to be displayed in bronze. On the cap of the pedestal stands a great draped female Genius holding a torch on high and in her other hand a Mercury's helmet, with wings. The figures for the lower groups in each design are calculated for a height of eight feet. The monument will cost from $150,000 to $200,000, the shaft or pedestal and island being of granite.

In the second design, with the draped Genius and torch, the groups for bronze on the four sides of the island or lower base are studied with much care and are agreeably diversified. Each side has three or four figures. Here are laborers prying the ore from the earth, there the molten iron is being poured from the crucible by the foundrymen, while the furnace flames in the background. Yonder is a seated master explaining his craft to a 'prentice boy in leather apron, who holds a big, long handled hammer, while the mother stands behind listening. A fourth group shows the iron being fashioned. The groups on this model are much more studied and composed than on the other. They have variety and good movement and a certain rhythm of line and mass which those of the other model lack.

The two designs will be forwarded to Taunton in order that the local committee of Leonards may judge the work. Perhaps the simple shaft with its frieze of low, classic reliefs on the plinth in the first model will find favor. On the other hand, the groups of the lower part in the second model may be preferred. Then the sculptor will sacrifice the big Genius and put the tall shaft in her place, thus combining the finer features of each.

The Leonard memorial, as can be easily imagined, is not to be finished for a long white. The studies for a larger model may occupy a year or two, and it may be five years before the monument is unveiled. The site for this important work of art is a square in Taunton surrounded by immense trees, which look as if they might have been planted when the Leonards first carne from England. There is a fountain in the center of the square just where the monument ought to stand. Perhaps in the completed design the fountain idea may be included. In any case within five or six years Taunton is likely to have a more important monument than anything of the sort in Boston. The family is so large and so many members are still engaged in the iron industry that the heavy outlay for a work of art of these dimensions will not stand in the way. The sum of $100,000 is already secured for the fund.