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Osborne Ivorex plaque of Burns Cottage, Alloway Ayr as seen from the exterior. Made of resin, handpainted, then dipped in paraffin wax.
Osborne Plaques were made in Faversham, Kent, England at 83 Abbey Street between 1899 and 1965 by the B. Osborne Company, founded by Arthur Osborne.
Arthur Osborne created the highly detailed master plaques in clay, often using picture postcards as his reference source. This master plaque was then used to create the gelatine moulds into which would be poured the plaster of Paris.
Once removed from the moulds the plaques were air dried in a heated room and then hand finished and painted by female apprentices. Once the painting part of the process had dried the plaques were dipped in hot paraffin wax to give a shine to their appearance and their Ivory like finish.
This was then buffed to a shine, brass eyelet rings and cords for hanging were fitte. Special custom made cardboard boxes were made to pack the plaques in and these usually have the plaque title and production number printed on the edge.
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