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Over the past twenty five years Tim has completed over 150 commissions. Some models are produced in blue, which look ethereal, as if illuminated from within.
The models are handmade in British gypsum plaster, and for tiny details, he uses brass, gold leaf, lead and glass. Tim explains these elegant touches: ‘People have an instinctive feel for materials’, he says. 35 cm Ca d’Oro, the famous 15th century Venetian palazzo, has a turquoise glazed panel at the back.
Most models range in size from 20 cm to 70 cm. Accuracy is so meticulous that people mistake photographs for the real thing. ‘What are you doing in Italy?’ clients have written when looking at a miniature version of the Pantheon.
Tim set up his model making workshops in 1988, these days masterminding a team of assistants in a Victorian school house in Bath. He reflects that the City of Bath, with grand Palladian terraces, probably inspired his chosen path.
In 2013 Richards won the Arthur Ross Award, the US Institute of Classical Architecture and Art Award for artisanship in the classical tradition. He made a bronze of an Athenian monument for the winner of the Richard H Driehaus Prize, annual US $200,000 global award for new classical architecture.
His most imposing commission to date came from a private museum in the Middle East. This is a model of the Palais Royal in Paris 2.75 metres tall and 6.9 metres wide. This was significantly larger than anything he has done before. Timothy Richards can also create a bespoke model of a client’s home, or a house they have loved and left.
Another section of his company, The Modern Souvenir Co. has just launched new collections of smaller, modestly priced, perfectly detailed plaster models celebrating the history and culture of Britain including Kings & Queens, Heroes, Buildings, writers such as Dickens, Shakespeare and Jane Austen. These models are available for sale on line, and many retail outlets They reinvent the romantic idea of a true souvenir, with no hint of tawdry key rings and T-shirts, which can encapsulate a magic moment in our lives.