Warther Museum announces life-size bronze statue of Mooney Warther

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The Warther Museum has announced they are making an addition to their already wonderful museum.  They plan to place a life-size bronze statue of Mooney Warther himself at the entrance for all to see, love, and connect with as they pass by.

The Warther Museum is like no other museum in the world.  Situated on eight acres in the tree lined residential neighborhood where Mooney once lived in Dover, Ohio, the Swiss chalet-styled Warther Museum gives visitors a glimpse into the life of Mooney, his wife Freida and their family.

With only a second grade education, Mooney became a master carver that could only be explained through his genius. Noted professors from Case Western Reserve explained the degree of skill in the creation of the pliers tree, one of Mooney’s more unique carvings, required an advanced degree in mathematics.  The Smithsonian Institution has even appraised his carvings as “Priceless works of Art.”

His talent lives on in members of his family, and his story is told in a family-friendly museum that celebrates the life of this remarkable man.  Mooney was considered to be an artist, mechanical genius, philosopher, inventor, collector, family man, showman, and knife maker.

Mooney Warther loved things that lasted forever, and that included family.  Operated by the third and fourth generation of the Warther Family, the museum and cutlery business remains a main stay in the community that holds family dear just as Mooney had.

The museum features Mooney’s home, restored to appear as it was when he and Freida started their life together.  Mooney’s original workshop, built in 1912, features his tools, an extensive collection of Native American arrowheads and the fireplace where he forged steel used in the kitchen knives.  The museum showcases the priceless collection of 64 trains made of ebony, ivory and walnut, carved by Mooney at different stages of his life.  Each carving is painstakingly accurate with moving parts that are remarkably to scale.

Carving was just a hobby for Mooney and to make a living he made handcrafted kitchen cutlery. Today that is still the family’s main source of income. Mooney started the knife company in 1902 and we have been making kitchen knives ever since.

Early in his carving mastery, Mooney learned how to make his signature pair of pliers from a single block of wood, which will be portrayed in the life-size bronze statue.  It will be of Mooney is his iconic pose, carving pliers.  He would carve these for the young children that came to see his carvings.

One can visit the museum today and take tours to learn more about Mooney, his accomplishments, and what mattered most to him, including his family life.

The museum has commissioned Big Statues, with Matt Glenn as the lead artist, to first create miniature statues that will be used as a fundraiser to help finance a life-sized figure to be placed at the entrance to the museum.

Tags:

Bronze Statue, minatures, Mooney

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