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produced by C. H. Mullins Co. 1893 |
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produced by C. H. Mullins Co. 1893 |
John Deere Pavilion
1400 River Drive
Moline, Illinois 61265
Charles Deere, son of John Deere, originally saw a prototype of the sculpted
"Stag" at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Deere
wanted a sculpture of this stag on top of every John Deere factory building.
In all, twenty replicas were placed like weather vanes on factory tops. Deere
& Company presently owns fourteen of the original sculptures, eleven of
which have been restored. Two of these originals are also on public display
at the Deere Administrative Center in Moline, Illinois.
The "Stag" was produced by C. H. Mullins Co. in Salem, Ohio in 1893. Although the sculptors' names are unknown, they were German and Hungarian artists. The work itself was made from a cast of a full-sized clay and plaster model. Sheets of copper were heated, trimmed to roughly fit the mold, machine stamped, joined by rivets and then soldered together. The base is approximately eight feet in length.