One of the most noted freelance sculptors of Cybis bird and animal studies was Charles Oldham, affectionately known as ‘Chuck.’ He was born in 1950 in Philadelphia and lived there until the age of eight, displaying an innate talent for sculpting by fashioning items even in grade school and with no formal training. His high-school Principal’s desk often sported a lineup of Chuck Oldham pieces! Throughout his school years, Chuck’s attention and focus was almost entirely on his art, although his skill on the football field helped keep his high-school team at the top of their local league for several years.
This sculpture of a Roman Centurion is from Chuck’s high-school days. Notice the fine detail, even to the expression in the soldier’s eye as seen through his helmet. (Photo courtesy of Victoria Oldham.)
He had such natural talent as a sculptor that his art teacher wrote an impassioned letter to the Philadelphia College of Art, begging them to consider taking Chuck as a student despite his family’s straitened financial circumstances. As a result, Chuck was able to attend that school for almost two years. However, the instructors told him frankly that he already knew as much or more than the art faculty was able to teach him, and that he would be better served by taking his talent into the commercial sphere. That advice was heeded, and his first job was at the Holland Mold Company. He was mentored there by Gale Postlethwaite who was one of the most skilled mold makers in the industry at that time.
In December 1974, Chuck married Victoria Prichard. The couple moved to Lansdowne, PA and formed a tight working partnership, each complementing the other’s skills. Vicky became a well-known sculptor in her own right, and created many of the Franklin Mint’s best-selling pieces. (More about Vicky later in this post.)
Cybis Limited-Edition Sculptures by Charles Oldham
Many of Chuck’s designs were specifically intended to be cast in porcelain. He created a baker’s dozen limited-edition designs for Cybis, shown here in chronological order by their Cybis retail introduction year.
The earliest known Oldham-for-Cybis limited-edition piece is the Great Horned Owl ‘Koo Koos Koos’ which the studio introduced in two color versions in 1975. Fifty full-color versions were offered, plus 150 of the albino colorway. It is 19” high. In late December 1977, a Koo KoosKoos was given as a Gift of State from the Jimmy Carter administration to Polish leader Edward Gierek.
Chuck used an actual Great Horned Owl as the model for this piece. He had been working with the bird in a post-injury rehab program, and the owl was kept in a huge flight cage at his studio. The rehab was successful, enabling the owl to be returned to the wild.
The American Wild Turkey was likewise produced in two plumage colorways; the albino version was sold as American White Turkey. This sculpture appeared in 1976 as an edition of 100 per color.
The finalized Cybis Hermit Thrush with Cranberry Cotoneaster (a 1977 edition of 250) does not look very much like the one that Chuck originally designed, because after purchasing the model the Cybis studio heavily edited it before production…so much so, in fact, that Chuck did not want his name to be associated with the retail edition! Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of Chuck’s original model of this.
The Arctic Fox, on the other hand, was produced exactly as he created it. This was an edition of 100 in 1980 that sold for $6500. The fox’s intended dinner is a pair of lemmings.
The Humpback Whale was done on a commission from the Cousteau Society. Chuck traveled to Hilton Head Island to meet with the Cousteau Society before starting work on this sculpture. Originally presented as an edition of 500 in 1981, the edition size was subsequently reduced to only 200. It is almost impossible to find one nowadays that has its original wood base AND also the two sea birds skimming the front of the waves (the piece above is missing the birds.) The birds are an important design element because they emphasize the truly massive size of the whale. Humpback whales average about 44 feet long and weigh between 30 and 50 tons depending on age and gender.
This photo shows Chuck with Jean-Michel Cousteau at the Brielle Galleries event that introduced the whale. Both of these do have the birds! More information about this edition is in the All at Sea post.
Beavers ‘Egbert and Brewster’ was a limited edition of 400 in 1981.
The Dall Sheep was one of the smallest edition quantities (only 50, in 1982, at $4250) that Cybis ever produced. It is 19” tall and quite statuesque! One example sold on eBay in 2023 for $700. I have only seen one other Dall Sheep sold, almost a decade previously, listed on eBay by a seller in Singapore; a collector friend of mine bought it, amid much trepidation given the distance, but it arrived in perfect condition. Whew!
Mother Bear and Three Cubs is another piece that, unfortunately, the studio heavily edited after purchasing the original model from Charles Oldham. The Cybis edition of 100 came out in 1983. The studio later cannibalized it in order to create individual open-edition bear cubs that were sold separately and in varying colorways. When Queen Elizabeth visited the United States in 1983, the governor of California presented her with a Mother Bear and Three Cubs as an official gift.
The cute kittens Ruffles and Truffles debuted as a limited edition of 400 in 1983. This is the only limited-edition cat sculpture that the Cybis studio ever produced.
The awkwardly-named Screech Owl and Siblings, from the mid-1980s, was another Oldham edition of 100.
Chuck was very fond of owls, and worked as an animal presenter for the education department of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He is shown here with a Barred Owl (Strix varia.)
The American Bald Eagle was originally introduced in 1986 as an edition of 300, in color and on a base as shown in the left-hand photo. It continued to be offered that way until 1995, at which time Cybis added a second edition of 300 described on their Fall 1995 price list as ‘white’. I have never seen a white example for sale online; the one shown here is a glazed white sample piece that was among the lots in the Cybis studio’s 2019-2020 liquidation auction sales.
The Gyrfalcon is one of only two Cybis sculptures that are known to have had an edition-size increase over the quantity that the studio originally stated there would be. It was introduced in 1987 as an edition of only 25; however, the studio’s 1988 price list shows it as now being an edition of 100 instead (at a 5% increase in its retail price.)
The final Oldham limited-edition introduction from Cybis was the Swans in Motion, in 1988. These are two separate sculptures which the studio initially offered only as a pair, and 100 pair comprised that edition. The wood bases are designed so that the two birds can fit together closely, as if both about the rise from the same lake or pond. Five years later, Cybis decided to offer the birds individually as well, as Swan (Wings Up) and Swan (Wings Out), listed as an edition of 100 each in 1993. The wings-up swan is 21” high, and the wings-out bird is 12” high.
Cybis Open-Edition Sculptures by Charles Oldham
All but one of the ten open-edition Cybis pieces by Chuck Oldham date from the 1970s. The earliest retail introduction was the sleeping kitten which the studio offered in two colorways – the ginger ‘Topaz’ and the grey ‘Tabitha’ – in 1975.
Next came Prairie Dog ‘Poko’, Bunny ‘Muffet’, and Seal ‘Sebastian’, all introduced in 1976. As noted elsewhere in the Archive, Sebastian is actually a sea lion but Cybis wrongly titled him as a seal.
1977 saw the introduction of Bunny ‘Pat-a-Cake’, Dandy the Dancing Dog, and Ducklings ‘Buttercup and Daffodil.’ The painting of the ultimate retail version of Dandy did not conform to Chuck’s original vision of the piece at all.
Dormouse ‘Maximilian’ also appeared in 1977. In 1978 the studio released an albino colorway and called her ‘Maxine.’
The final Oldham open edition from Cybis was Elephant ‘Phineas’ in 1984. This was another design where Chuck disliked the final retail version; the problem with this piece was, like Dandy the Dancing Dog, the studio’s painting choices. Phineas is an Indian elephant, by the way.
1984 was also the year in which Chuck decided that it was no longer feasible to continue designing for Cybis. As related elsewhere on this site, things had changed between the studio management and the artists after Marylin Chorlton passed away in 1977. Many of the veteran in-house Cybis artists decamped during the mid-1980s as well.
Because Chuck was a freelance artist, he was at liberty to design sculptures for anyone. However, he never chose to do any work for the Boehm studio because it was clear that he and Helen Boehm would be completely incompatible in any type of business relationship. A wise artist always knows whom not to design for! 🙂
The next part of this Profile will look at the designs created by Charles Oldham for his own studio’s sales as well as for companies other than Cybis.
The Oldham Porcelain Studio
In 1982, Chuck and Victoria Oldham decided to take the plunge into establishing their own porcelain studio: a small atelier in which all of the work would be done by the two artists themselves. Three large kilns were installed in the basement of their home on Hemlock Road in Lansdowne. The focus was on producing fine pieces of art porcelain in small limited-edition quantities, which would be sold locally and also carried by some of the same retailers who sold sculptures from Cybis, Boehm, Royal Worcester, etc. Brielle Galleries carried the Oldham pieces, as did Bailey Banks and Biddle in Philadelphia and several other similar high-end stores. The Oldham studio did not advertise to the public directly, but relied on the retailers and word-of-mouth to make collectors aware of the quality of their sculptures.
An incredible amount of time was devoted to the finest details, especially the painting which was done by Vicky. It was not uncommon for a single piece to be fired dozens of times before the perfect blush of a delicate skin tone, or shadings of a cat’s fur, was achieved. A large-volume studio such as Cybis or Boehm would not pursue perfection to the same intensity that the Oldhams did.
The Unicorn Head is an excellent example of this attention to detail. It is 11” high on its accompanying wood base and was an intended edition of 450. The tints used on the muzzle, the mane, and around the eyes are appropriately delicate, and the blue eyes are nothing short of arresting. Everything is hand-painted.
I have to say that they are the most realistic eyes that I have ever seen on a piece of porcelain, whether animal or human. Surely this must be exactly what an actual unicorn would look like! (Photos courtesy of Victoria Oldham.)
The blue velvet insert on the top of the base is another touch that most studios would not have bothered to incorporate. Cybis did something similar atop one of their rectangular bases but only for six designs: three open editions and three limited editions, all during the Marylin Chorlton era of the 1970s and never thereafter.
Thumbelina, from 1987, is 100% true to the Grimm’s fairy tale that I recall from my childhood.
For a bed she had a walnut shell, violet petals for her mattress, and a rose petal blanket.
(Photos courtesy of Victoria Oldham.)
In contrast, the Cybis depiction of Thumbelina – although quite pretty – could be any young girl. There is nothing that visually identifies this piece as Thumbelina, but one instantly knows what character the Oldham piece portrays.
This adorable face-washing cat is titled Kitten I (Cats of Rennes-le-Chateau) and is dated 1993.
Newborn Treasure was the porcelain inspiration for a later Oldlham bronze titled The Gift. (The bronzes are shown in their own section.) It is 13” high and was created in 1991.
The poem on the side was written by Vicky Oldham, who also created each decal by hand.
Such tiny hands and sparkling eyes,
A wondrous gift, and mother’s prize!
With a tender love that has no measure,
In cradling arms her Newborn Treasure.
For this and some other Oldham Porcelain editions, all of the sculptures were designated as numbered Artist’s Proofs.
This little fellow, only slightly more than 3” high and 4.5” long from beak to tail-tip, is The Bluebird from 1992. Intended as a ‘starter piece’ (much like the Cybis Baby Owl and Mr. Snowball) for those just beginning to collect fine porcelain, each one was painted by Vicky Oldham.
The cost of producing porcelain sculptures in the best materials can be staggeringly high for a small artisan studio such as Oldham & Company. An alternative, for some designs, can be a high-quality resin which allows for production on a much more cost-effective basis. Unlike some studios (I’m looking at you, Boehm) that duplicated some of their own porcelain sculptures in resin, the Oldhams designed especially for that medium. Chuck had become proficient at creating molds for resin; rather than simply giving a design sketch to an offshore factory, the Oldham studio produced finished prototypes for the chosen manufacturer to work from.
The Guardian Angel of Cats is from 1997. The box design and illustrations are by Vicky Oldham.
The resin figures produced under the Oldham & Company branding were made in a Chinese factory noted for their quality work. This is the Guardian Angel of Puppies.
The 1988 Cats of Baseball series was licensed to United Treasures, Inc. who produced them in China.
This cat is ‘Chopper’.
A miniature depiction of The Annunciation, cast in resin.
Santa and his Elves are original Oldham designs, inspired by a Christmas card that Vicky drew.
The Oldham studio in Pennsylvania operated until 1998, after which Chuck and Vicky relocated first to Seattle, Washington and then to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Oldham Designs for Lenox, The Franklin Mint, and Others
In addition to roughly a dozen years as the chief freelance wildlife sculptor for Cybis, Chuck also spent almost 20 years designing pieces for Lenox, The Franklin Mint, Danbury Mint, The Bradford Collection, and The Hamilton Collection. Those last four companies dominated the mass-market collectibles sphere during the 1970s and 1980s. Even the Boehm studios worked with Hamilton to produce plates and floral pieces, although Cybis only dipped a toe into that sector (with two dolls, for which they only supplied the prototype porcelain heads and did no manufacturing themselves.)
“Lenox Collections” was the branding for one of Lenox China’s several figurine/home decor lines. Three Chuck Oldham designs were part of their late-1980s Carousel Collection under this branding.
The Carousel Horse in 1988,
The Carousel Unicorn in 1989,
And the Carousel Lion in 1990. These porcelains were all made in Taiwan for Lenox and are about 9” tall.
Unlike some carousel pieces, figures in this series do not incorporate a full-length carousel pole in the design. This made the packaging much more efficient!
Notice that the COA cards do not mention the designer but only say “an original work of art created exclusively for”. This was typical; for example, freelance designer Susan Clark Eaton designed an entire 13-piece unicorn series for another Lenox brand called ‘Princeton Gallery’ but her name doesn’t appear on any of them.
At least two Chuck Oldham designs were released by The Franklin Mint in 1988. One was a Grizzly Bear done on commission through the National Wildlife Federation. It is 9” high, 13” long, and reportedly weighs five and a half pounds (not sure if that includes the weight of the base.) Like almost all Franklin Mint items, these were made offshore. Charles Oldham was not given credit on the sculpture itself as the designer.
A very large Franklin Mint piece that year was On the Prowl, Bengal Tiger. There is an attribution story behind this issue.
This photograph shows Chuck standing behind his original clay model of On the Prowl.
This is the finished product that Franklin Mint had produced. It is 25” long x 12.75” high, including the separate wood base, and sold for $750 at the time. On the Learn Sculpture website, Vicky Oldham relates that
Although completed off-site entirely by Charles Oldham in his own sculpture studio, when the porcelain of the sculpture shipped, we found that the [Franklin Mint] art director at the time (George McMonigle) had managed to have his name imprinted on it as the sculptor of record, and McMonigle’s name was fired on the finished porcelains! We complained to the owner of the Franklin Mint, threatening to go to the popular investigative show at the time, 60 Minutes, to expose how Franklin Mint committed fraud in the marketing of its sculptures and collectibles.
Linda Resnick, co-owner of the Franklin Mint, invited us to lunch and afterward had the art director’s name removed from any new sculptures of On the Prowl. However, the initial run had already shipped and sold, unfortunately bearing the name of George McMonigle. There are still editions out there selling on the secondary and estate market bearing his name.
This is an example of the revised stamp that was then used. I have not found any photo of the McMonigle stamp, but a search of Sold auction house listings turned up two which the auctioneer described as being “by George McMonigle.” Franklin Mint marketed their items in the United States, Canada, and the UK.
Oldham Art in Bronze
Some Oldham works were created only bronze, while others were available in a choice of materials. Most of these date from 1998 or later. All of the photographs in this section appear courtesy of Victoria Oldham.
Horizons was available in either bronze or resin. This is the original model, showing two boys sailing off on a great adventure. This was also available in a choice of sizes: Maquette, Masterwork, or Life Size.
The Sitting Cat is life size and looks so real! Finished examples might differ in size or position. Buyers could choose this in either bronze or resin.
Kittens ‘Ambush & Alibi’ was cast in bronze in 1999 and 2000. Although this one is inscribed as #12, Vicky Oldham says that there were never more than three of these created.
Charles and Vicky collaborated on their entry for a late-1990s competition to design a bronze monument to be placed in the town of Sedona, Arizona. They decided to create a piece based on a local Native American legend, and met with the leaders of the Yavapai Nation.
The result was actually two sculptures, joined: People of the Sun and Lady of the Pearl. According to Vicky Oldham’s description of her concept drawing,
The First Lady, the Lady of the Pearl, travels to the top of Mingus Mountain. She is the only survivor of a “Great Flood,” similar to the Biblical flood of Christianity. Atop the mountain, she meets the Sun; afterward, she returns to bathe in a sacred spring in Boynton Canyon, Sedona. From these encounters come all Sedona’s first people.
The Lady of the Pearl as a separate sculpture.
A photograph of the combined sculpture was used in an advertisement for Chavant Clay Products.
The Gift was a 1999 mother-and-baby sculpture in bronze; it appeared in a special sculpture issue of Southwest Art Magazine. It is 20” high and 12” wide and was based on the 1991 porcelain edition Newborn Treasure. There is a reason why The Gift (bronze, 20”) is larger than Newborn Treasure (porcelain, 13”.) Vicky Oldham described the process:
Chuck went from clay, made the plaster mold and case, then the plaster mold to porcelain. He later went back to the original clay, made a few modifications for bronze, and had the foundry do the rubber mold and bronze casting. This is why the bronze is so much larger than the porcelain. It’s using his same original heads and hands sculpture, but with modifications allowing undercuts due to the forgiving nature of the rubber mold.
Sea Turtle Group in bronze, from 2004, marked Charles Oldham. Other individual sea turtles were created in porcelain and/or bronze as well. The porcelain ones are marked Oldham Porcelains.
Rooster in clay, circa 1999. Originally intended as a bronze, some porcelain examples of this rooster were cast as well.
This lovely promotional photograph of Charles and Victoria was taken during the early years of their Pennsylvania studio.
A photo of Chuck in the summer of 2007. A few years later, he launched a website (learnsculpture.org) to encourage the art of sculpture and make it more widely available to anyone who might wish to learn. In late 2011 the couple began making how-to videos, posting them on YouTube, and linking to them from the Learn Sculpture website. By that time Chuck had become quite ill but was determined to persist in his vision of introducing people to the art of sculpture.
Sadly, Charles Oldham passed away in May 2014 from an accelerating lung condition. The Learn Sculpture website remained online but without any new content until Victoria Oldham revived it a few years ago. It is now once again an active, and interactive, educational site; the Learn Sculpture channel on YouTube has more than 38,000 subscribers and 13 videos as of this writing. These are the videos that Chuck Oldham originally made, starting in early 2012. Each video is a hands-on (literally!) sculpture lesson ranging from 12 to 36 minutes in length.
Chuck’s first lesson-video, Clay Modeling, has almost 1 million views and more than 300 comments. As someone who never got past making an embarrassing Gumby-style figure in childhood, I was amazed at how user-friendly the lessons are. Vicky has picked up the reins of Chuck’s mission to show how easy and rewarding sculpting can be, even if one has never attempted it before.
Victoria Oldham’s Art
Because Chuck and Vicky worked in such close partnership, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least touch upon some of the sculptures created by Vicky even though she did not create any pieces for Cybis.
Victoria’s first design for Franklin Mint, Moonlight in Platinum, debuted in 1987. It combined porcelain, platinum electroplating, and lead crystal. The first photo shows Vicky’s original clay and plaster models.
Although this piece made about $40 million in sales for Franklin, Vicky received only $2500 for her original model. At least Franklin Mint did identify her as the creator of this one!
When the Danbury Mint wanted to offer porcelain-sculpture renditions of several Lena Liu paintings, Vicky Oldham was one of the artists chosen. Marketed as the ‘Maidens of The Imperial Palace’ series in 1998, they are (from top left) the Iris Princess, Plum Blossom Princess, Chrysanthemum Princess, and Rose Princess. They are 9.75” tall. Unfortunately, the backstamp cites only Lena Liu as the original artist – not Victoria Oldham as the sculptor of the porcelain versions.
The same situation applies to the eight of the ‘Cameo Girls’ lady head vases sold by United Designs starting in 2000. There is a large collecting community for lady-head vases, which originally became popular during the 1940s and 1950s. The vintage-inspired Cameo Girls line was designed by artist Debby Cotter Kaspari in the late 1990s. Working from concept art supplied by Ms. Kaspari, Vicky created eight lady heads that United Designs manufactured, but she was never given public credit for them.
All but two of the photos shown in my collage are Vicky’s photos of her original models as given to United Designs. One of the inspirations for the ‘Judith’ head sculpt was actress Michelle Pfeiffer! I have arranged them in chronological order according to the decade that each design represents and how the retail item was titled. Several of these vases were only manufactured for a year or two, and Debby Kaspari stopped creating any Cameo Girls design drawings in 2006.
My sincere thanks to Victoria Oldham for all of the information that she and her website supplied about Chuck’s work and the art created at their own studios!
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