THE IVORS' STATUETTES

FIFTY YEARS WITH THE IVORS

Mike Wilson has been over-seeing the creation of The Ivors’ distinctive statuettes for 50 years this year. Here, he talks us through the history of this remarkable manufacturing process…

Back in 1974, at the age of 31, I had become disillusioned with working for two large companies and decided to have a go with my own business. I saw a non ferrous foundry advertised for sale in the local newspaper, and this piqued my interest, having had some involvement with the iron foundry at my then employers.

I bought it! It was operating in the disused Co op funeral stables behind a North London parade of shops, where it had commenced operation in 1947, as Victoria Foundry.

I was the third owner and inherited a real mishmash of jobs and a heap of what turned out to be obsolete patterns. I also discovered that the foundry had produced the Ivor Novello Awards, so I contacted the organisers, only to be told that I was not going to make them, because there had been such big problems the previous year.

I pleaded that I was the new boy and was granted a meeting with the mistress of The Ivors, whom I persuaded to give me a chance, just for that year. If we did not perform, we would be out. That was 50 years ago, and so I should like to thank Lesley Bray for her faith in me.

That year the hand finishing of the statuettes was due to be done by a local gentleman who had previously done the work. Tragically he suddenly died, and I was landed with a real problem. We had to do it ourselves, and – together with my foundry manager, Russell Lucas – we did it. It really was a case of learning by trial and error, and a bit of panic, but we had the awards ready for collection on time.

The artist Hazel Underwood – then a student at St Martin’s School of Art – had designed the award, with its distinctive depiction of Euterpe, the Greek muse of singing and lyric poetry. The awards were first presented in 1956, and Hazel initially supervised their production as a lost wax casting. By the time that I became involved, it was being made by a foundry called Corinthian Bronze, which took over Victoria Foundry, to become Corvic.

At that time, nearly 20 years after those first awards, it had become a sand casting, for reasons lost in time. Sand casting gives a far inferior finish and reproduction of detail, compared to the original lost wax process, and requires a lot more hand finishing. We were not able to do lost wax, but we did do sand casting and that is the way it remained for the next 30 years.

After 1977, I was invited to the awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel, which involved a battle through the traffic on the Finchley Road, with the awards in the car, and then setting them out on tables (which were sometimes not there). The Ivors were not the beautifully organised production they are today, but they happened. Soon my wife Sue was invited along and acted as guardian whilst I parked the car. There was a lot of carrying of statuettes, and sore backs, before we discovered the jumbo lift, which goes from the street right down to the Great Room, where the presentations are made.

We continued to produce the awards as bronze sand castings until 2005, by which time it was becoming apparent that the days of the small jobbing foundry were coming to an end. At this point I decided to close my foundry and, simultaneously, BASCA (now known as The Ivors Academy) asked if we could return the award to the appearance that it had as a lost wax casting in the 1950s.

Yes, I said, but at a cost, and I began the search for a lost wax foundry that could do the work. After a near disastrous start, and two years of problems, we found Tony Buckland and Investacast in 2009. They have now made the raw castings for us for the past 15 years and, although Tony has now retired, they continue to make the best castings in the history of The Ivors.

In order to make the change, we required a good example of an early Ivor Novello Award, to use as a pattern. We initially worked from one awarded to the legendary Tony Bennett, kindly made available by his daughter, but the result was pronounced “not good enough” by her friend, the sculptress, Hazel Underwood. Small world!

We then managed to borrow an Ivor presented to renowned jazz composer Johnny Dankworth in 1957, the second year of the awards, before the quality had begun to deteriorate. The statuettes that we make today are thus faithful replicas of those that were presented nearly 70 years ago. They are detailed and finished by me, in my workshop in Gloucestershire. The inscription plates have been engraved by Bob Smith for the last fifty one years, I’m thankful to Bob as my friend and business associate of the longest standing.

I am proud to have been responsible for the production of Ivor Novello Awards for half a century, and to have steered them back to the standard envisaged by the sculptress so long ago. I’d like to thank The Ivors Academy (and their predecessors BASCA) and PRS for Music, for the opportunity to contribute to the world of music in this way.