Amy Goldman’s superb bronze sculpture of an heirloom tomato has a fascinating back story. Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter Tomato was developed in the 1930s by M. C. Byles. His huge, meaty, and flavorful tomato is a cross of ‘Beefsteak’ and 3 other large varieties. During the 1940s, Byles sold plants at a dollar each and paid off the $6,000 mortgage on his home in 6 years.

 

A passionate gardener, seed saver, author, and advocate for heirloom fruits and vegetables, Amy Goldman has created a series of stunning bronze sculptures cast from the harvest of heirloom treasures she grows in her legendary garden. Each piece captures the unique shape and texture of a gourd, tomato, or melon, revealing its sensuous and ageless beauty. Goldman has bestowed on this line of limited-edition bronzes the apt name “Rare Forms.”

 

Amy Goldman teamed up with Polich Tallix, a fine arts foundry, to produce her sculptures. The pieces are created through the ancient “lost wax” process, used for thousands of years by artists in Egypt and China. This painstaking technique is the only one capable of reproducing in bronze the allure of these marvelous shapes.