Specialist Valuer for Collectable Figurines and Studies, James Middleton, offers some valuable information about Tim Cotterill, a popular focus for collectors.
“From Leicester to California, Tim has become one of the worlds most renowned bronze artists in the world. Leaving school at 15, in the late 60s early 70s, Tim embarked on a mixed career within the trades, eventually leading into metalwork and welding, landing him in constructing welded animals.
“Fast forward, his work was thriving through private commissions and was coming up for sale even in London’s finest auction houses such as Sotheby’s. Eventually emigrating to Venice Beach, California, Tim’s famous frogs were brought to life, and today there are well over 200 limited designs, reaching such high statistics due to their popularity.
“Each ‘Frogman’ produced is of a limited number, in Tim’s famous southern California foundry. This is where the magic happens, where his creations are produced. A well-trained team produce the Frogmen from Tim’s initial master design through a process going back thousands of years called Lost Wax Casting. This process involves producing a mould around the master, followed by melting the wax around it. This leaves a cavity for the molten bronze to be poured into, thereby creating the Frogmen.
“These are cooled and passed onto the final stage of the process, where a team of expert patina workers hand finish the bronze in their desired colours, etc. Once completed, each Frogman is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity bearing the signature of the authorised galleries. Each Frogman has on the underside Tim’s signature and its limited-edition number, for example, 1311/2000.”