Silvio P. Zoratti Songbird Sculpture

Circa 1960: Silvio Peter Zoratti (1896-1992) was an Italian immigrant who came to America after being released from a WWI German prisoner of war camp. He had been trained as a stone carver in Europe and settled in Ohio, where, in 1923, he took a stonemason position on the Nickel Plate Railroad and worked there until his retirement in 1961. Zoratti did a few folk art stone and concrete sculptures for himself starting in 1958, and he began working in wood after his retirement and would continue carving until the 1980s when he stopped because of failing eyesight. Zoratti completed around 300 sculptures and had them displayed outside in his garden and around his tool shed. This 8.5"H x 10"W rendition of a songbird is made of a molded and carved sandstone concrete conglomerate and is one of only a few known Silvio Zoratti sculptures produced in this medium. Zoratti is now considered a major American folk artist, and the excellent quality of this sculpture is evidence of such high praise. This is folksy patriotic americana at is finest.