Don’t shoot the messenger.
The question of guns in America is a polarizing topic. We each have our own opinion on the issue. But I would like to focus this blog solely on Richard Blow and his mosaics.
Why did he create artworks featuring guns (and knives)? Because it was an accepted part of American culture in his day.
Richard grew up in a different America than today. It was mostly rural, wide open spaces. In 1904, when he was born, the United States population was only 82 million – just one fourth of today’s 330 million. Five of today’s states were still frontier territories. It didn’t become majority urban until 1920 (today, 80% of us live in cities). Back then, people used rifles to hunt for food, and handguns for personal protection (law enforcement in rural areas was spotty).. Blow himself was on his high school’s Rifle Team at Lawrenceville School.
When Richard was creating his pistol mosaics in the 1950s, guns were much less controversial.
Cowboy and Indian films dominated the American silver screen in the Fifties, featuring stars like John Wayne and Gary Cooper. In the Wild West, everybody holstered a six-shooter – sheriffs, outlaws, gamblers, soldiers, settlers, ranchers. When Richard was creating mosaics in the 1950s, guns were part of our national mythology.
In music as well as films.
In 1951, the classic American Christmas song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” first hit the radio airwaves. .Its lyrics include: “…Hopalong boots and a pistol that shoots is the wish of Barney and Ben…” Hopalong Cassidy was an immensely popular fictional cowboy character appearing in western films, and later on NBC-TV, into the 1960s. Hopalong carried a gun; American boys – including me --wanted to be like their hero. The Christmas I turned six, I got both pistol and boots from my parents. The pistol shot tiny, gunpowder caps.
The classic American holiday film “A Christmas Story” set in 1940, features a nine-year old boy dreaming of getting a Red Ryder BB air rifle. The film’s popularity stems partly from nostalgic Baby Boomers (like myself), who played with Red Ryder BB guns as kids (I got mine at age 10). Mothers worried we would shoot out an eye, but fathers overruled.
Knives were also part of growing up as a boy in 1950s America. TV hero Davey Crockett carried a big Bowie Knife. I and every boy I knew carried a foldable jack knife in their pocket. You used it to cut branches, slice an apple, carve your initials on a barn door, or play a popular knife-throwing game called Mumblety Peg.
My point in all this?
It was a different era.
It was both culturally acceptable and smart marketing for Richard to create Montici mosaics featuring guns and knives during the 1950s and 60s.
Richard understood marketing. If he were going to be successful in re-inventing Florentine mosaics, he needed to produce sellable artworks that appealed to his two primary markets – the United States and Italy ( gun-slinging Hollywood Westerns were very popular with Italian movie goers as well -- Italian film director Sergio Leone produced a series of popular, spin-off “Spaghetti Westerns” in the 1960s).
But beyond just helping keep his Montici studio solvent, Richard didn’t seem to have much interest in the theme of pistols.
Among the 300+ mosaics in our Society database, only four feature guns.
The first mosaic is shown at the top of this blog.
Richard created “Two Pistols” (title by Richard) in 1970. He included it in the 25 mosaics he donated to Oregon State University. It’s value at the time of donation was listed as $470. The revolver looks to be the classic 19th-century Colt 45 “Peacemaker.” The smaller gun is another Wild West classic – a pocket Remington derringer. This suggests to me that Blow deliberately chose guns with the broadest, mass-market appeal. It was a business decision, not an artistic one. The only non-realistic element in this mosaic is the weird circle in the top left of the mosaic. It appears completely out of place. I have no idea what it is, or why it’s there. Is it supposed to represent the mouth of the barrel of a gun? If you have a guess, send me a note. I’m truly baffled.
The second mosaic in our Society database “Pistol and Derringer #1” (MSID) is a close variant of the OSU “Two Pistols” mosaic. The derringer is flipped right side up and sports a pearl handle instead of the OSU green grip; but the guns are the same – Colt 45 pistol and Remington derringer. Myers Fine Art auctioned this work off in Feb. 2019. It had an estimated price of $1,000-$1,500; it sold for $2,000 (including buyer’s premium). Nine months later, in November 2019, the same piece – or a very close variant – came on the market via First Dibs with an asking price of $6,800. It may have sold in December 2019. I have emailed the seller to see if I can find the price it sold for.
The third pistol mosaic in our Society database is “Pistol and Derringer #2” (MSID). It’s a very close variant of Pistol and Derringer #1. The guns are the same, but the derringer has a green handle instead of pearl. It showed up in the Wright-Edelsberg auction of October 2019 (Lot 111) with an estimated price of $2,500-$3,000. But buyers passed on it. It remained unsold.
The fourth pistol mosaic, “Pistol and Knife #1” (MSID), features a knife instead of a derringer. We first spotted this mosaic on Pinterest. It didn’t include any information. A few months later, it showed up along with “Pistol and Derringer #2” as part of the blockbuster October 2019 Wright-Edelsberg auction (Lot 121)). Both mosaics had been acquired by collector Adam Edelsberg.
The knife looks like a Bowie knife. Perhaps Blow was inspired to add a Bowie knife by the popular 1950s Walt Disney TV series “Davey Crockett” (1954-55). Crockett carried a Bowie knife. During the TV series two-year run, Americans bought $300 million worth of Davie Crockett-themed merchandise. Was Richard trying to capitalize on this craze? The mosaic is dated 1968, years after the original TV series aired. But the TV series was rebroadcasted n the 1960s on NBC.
In any event, in 2019, Wright set the estimated price for this mosaic at a steep $4,000-$6,000. But like “Pistol and Derringer #2, it failed to find a buyer at all.
I can understand buyers passing at a price of $,4000-$6,000, even with a Blow signature on the back. Eight months earlier, the Meyers pistol only fetched $2,000. But the second Wright-Edelsberg pistol had a low estimate of $2,500, very close to the Myers. It also failed to sell.
Interesting.
Perhaps the gun theme for most Montici collectors is approaching toxicity. In 2019, there were 434 gun shootings, resulting in 517 deaths and 1,643 injuries, for a total of 2,160 victims.
I’m curious to see the price fetched when the next Montici gun mosaic comes to market.
Michael Schmicker
POST SCRIPT
On June 14, 2022, I came across a fifth pistol mosaic, “Ghost Town” (MSID). The mosaic was featured in a Time magazine article dated Dec. 31, 1951 that was attached to the verso of another Montici mosaic put up for auction. It features the standard pistol and derringer, but also four playing cards, suggesting a gambler’s game. The magazine article notes: “Blow reports especially encouraging sales in Texas. ‘Poeple from Texas are crazy about designs of pistols and playing cards.”
