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Henry and Isabel Coryat:
Wonder no more. Meet Henry and Isabel Coryat, owners and chief artisans of Coryat Casting Co., Inc., a bronze sculpture foundry in Rhinebeck, New York, now celebrating its 20th year. Henry, 70, the chief moldmaker for the enterprise, has made many hundreds of rubber molds of sculptures from jewelry-size pieces to large sculptures weighing well over 1000 pounds in bronze. Isabel, 63, an expert in metal finishing and patination, has made a specialty of restoring outdoor bronze statuary. It is a flourishing second career for both that neither could have anticipated back in 1978, when Henry was at the peak of a 23-year career in international banking and finance, and Isabel owned an art gallery/frame shop. Here’s how it came about. "In 1973, Isabel and I got married and moved to London where we enjoyed an idyllic existence for about two years. An opportunity arose for the WFC Corporation, a small international investment banking group made up of old friends and former banking colleagues of mine, to organize a bank in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates in partnership with the ruler of one of the emirates. I was selected to set up the bank and to run it as managing director. "After three and one-half years (and four summers) living in the Persian Gulf, I began wondering whether I wanted to continue in a profession where one never knew for sure where he would be living and working next, and traveling constantly for more than twenty years had become a bore. It occurred to me that arranging complex financial deals as an occupation was nowhere nearly as gratifying to me as was the building or refinishing of a piece of furniture, the remodeling of a bathroom in my home or the creation of a piece of sculpture. Isabel and I found ourselves dreaming of settling down close to family in New York in a nice green area where we could establish our own business and be totally in control of our future. "So there we were in the UAE, I, the president of an Arabian Bank and Isabel, the owner of an art gallery/frame shop in the Emirate of Ajman. Without knowing a thing about bronze casting or the feasibility of our idea, we decided that we would like to own and operate a bronze sculpture foundry in the Mid-Hudson area of New York State. "We returned to the U.S. in October 1978; completed a one-year apprenticeship at the Johnson Atelier, Technical Institute of Sculpture in Princeton, NJ in October 1979; bought a residential/ commercial building in Rhinebeck, N.Y. in November 1979; built and outfitted our art foundry entirely by ourselves within the commercial part of the building (3,750 sq. ft) by August 1980 -- at which time we completely ran out of money. Ready or not, we declared ourselves open for business. "It may be hard for some to understand why or how two people, who had grown accustomed to living luxuriously (large villa, servant, cook, Mercedes, large salary, first-class air travel, long vacations, etc. all provided by the bank) would decide to give up those creature comforts and financial security for a life of hard work; risk of failure with consequent loss of time and investment; and an income which could at best provide them by comparison with a relatively modest lifestyle. This can be explained only by our shared love of art, a passion to make beautiful, tangible things with our own hands, and a desire to work together at an activity we both find completely fulfilling. In our fondest dreams, we never envisioned that not only would we achieve success as an art foundry, but that we would also be selected as the foundry exclusively entrusted by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to produce their bronze reproductions. "Our objective from the beginning was to have a ‘studio-sized’ foundry (rather than a large industrial plant) where we could actually work as artisans in the day-to-day production of the foundry. Though our shopspace and inventory of tools and equipment is large enough to accommodate fifteen or more workers, we have never had more than six persons (including ourselves) working in the foundry at any given time. In fact, the foundry layout is so designed that two persons with complete foundry knowledge and skills between them can operate the facility alone. "After more than twenty years, we still enjoy going to our foundry every day, the communion with artists and the art world, and the physical work (which keeps us trim and healthy) of producing superb bronze casts of our clients' works of art. "But work is not the be all and end all of life. We are avid golfers and shareholder/members of our local golf club, a beautifully maintained eighteen-hole championship course. To get as much enjoyment as possible in the summer golf season, for the past fifteen years the foundry has been open only Monday through Thursday between the Fourth of July and Labor Day and closed entirely for two weeks each summer. It's nice to be your own boss." Next Steps If you are interested in exploring a second career in art casting, Henry and Isabel would be glad to talk with you. Contact information follows. Check out the Coryat’s website at: Home |
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Have you ever
wondered who makes those exquisite bronze reproductions for New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art, sold in its shops and catalog?