Bob Scriver  (1914 - 1999)

Scriver Belt Buckle: Montana Trapper
I have a buckle I got back in the mid -70s entitled Montana Trapper by Scriver. Does anyone know the value of this wonderful item?
Thanks

Scriver set of Tree Bronzes
Three Bronzes
I purchased a set of three bronzes by Bob Scriver shortly before he passed. They are "Southfork Spring", "North Fork Wolves" and "Middlefork Grizzly" They were cast in Kalispell and may be among the last pieces made. I have not seen them on any listings or auctions. Can anyone tell me anything about these pieces? Are they well known, valuable etc.. Any feedback would be appreciated...jc

bob scriver bronze PRAIRIE PARTNERS - 2
I HAVE A BORNZE BY BOB SCRIVER. IT IS ENTITLED PRAIRIE PARTNERS - 2, DATED 1975. IT IS OF 2 PRAIRIE DOGS ON THEIR MOUND, ONE ON ALL 4'S LOOKING UP FROM THEIR BURROW AND THE OTHER IS UPRIGHT ON ITS HIND LEGS. I WOULD LIKE AN ESTIMATE OF ITS VALUE. THANK YOU.

North Fork Wolves
I have a bronze of the two North Fork Wolves. I would like an estimate of its value. I received them in 1996. Thank you.

Montana Trapper Bicentennial Belt Buckles
I have a Bob Scriver Bicentennial belt buckle,Registration # M-E822. Can anybody tell me what it might be worth, before I give it to my children.

1957 Bob Scriver Bronze
I recently acquired a Bob Scriver Bronze that is dated 1957. It is a horse with a rider that looks like it is climbing a hill and both the horse and the rider are looking back, the bridle has a leather piece on it for the reins. Could anyone give me information on this piece of art. I am a Browning Native and knew Bob when I was younger. Thanks.

Bob Scriver plaster items
We have two plaster items by Bob Scriver - a deer signed 'Bob Scriver 1951' (with a large (1/4") chip off the right back end of the base) & a mountain goat (signed only, no date) with about 1/2 of one horn missing & paint flakes overall. Both are still nice enough for display & they were donated to our church for a rummage sale. Does anyone know what a good price for them would be in that venue? Or should they be sold someplace else? Thank you for any help you can give. Melanie Medlin

fake Scriver bronzes
I'm told that there are people in the Kalispell, Montana, area who are claiming to be the sons of one of Bob Scriver's wives, though not of Bob Scriver himself. The only one of Bob Scriver's wives to have children with Bob was Alice Prestmo who married James Skogen after Bob Scriver and had four more children then.

Bob despised Skogen, who died young from a heart attack before Bob became known.

None of the other three wives had children with or without Bob Scriver. Specifically, Lorraine -- the fourth wife -- was sterile. I am the third wife and chose never to have children.

In addition, I'm told that "previously uncast" bronzes are appearing. I suspect they may not even have been created by Scriver. Watch out for these easily discredited and basically value-less castings.

Mary Strachan Scriver

find out price
Looking for the price of the 1968 "Lone Cowboy" by Bob Scriver

bob scriver "lone cowboy" bronze
hi there i have a lone cowboy bronze by bob scriver numbered at 16/24 been researching and it seems to be a very rare piece was wondering if anyone had information of value and history on the bronze
thank you

find out price
I have a 1957 scuplture of c.m.russell made from scriver. I want to know what the price is. Also is this the piece he did for the contest in 1956. It is about 2 feet tall with base.

Sagebrush Bronc Value
I have #35 of 60 of Bob Scriver's Sagebrush Bronc.

Cartuche arrowhead 17" "bronze" from the Browning foundry

Can anyone give me a rough idea of what it may be worth?

bob scriver bronze belt buckles
I have four 1804-1806 corps of discovery bronze belt buckles 4 of 7 series. I cannot find any info on these, can anyone help me as to what they maybe worth ? thank you

Scriver bronze - King of the Prairie
I bought the above bronze eagle from Bob Scriver in 1986. As we were just visiting the US he stamped the one on display in his workshop '1' of a number to be determined and I wonder what the final number was and whether anyone has one. I have the original certificate and the hand completed receipt

Grizzley
I have a 1959 Bob Scriver Grizzley bear Bronze. Above Bob's signature there is a circle with the number 3 inside. Is that the number of this casting? This piece is 6" tall and about 6 1/2 inches long. It was purchased new by my Mother-In-Law who,at that time worked in Bob's gallery in Browning, Montana. Does anyone have any information about this piece?

"Bronze Inside and Out: A Biographical Memoir of Bob Scriver"
"Bronze Inside and Out: A Biographical Memoir of Bob Scriver" by Mary Strachan Scriver will soon be published by the University of Calgary Press. Foreword by Brian Dippie.

Mary Scriver

Buffalo Skull
Bob Scriver's career began with small inexpensive plaster items sold to tourists. They were mass produced in the sense that many of them were made, but they were hand cast, trimmed and painted. In the summer time it was sometimes Bob's grandkids who painted the horns on the skulls black. There were three sizes of skulls. The largest was made in the Fifties. A nefarious character acquired
one of these, made his own mold which was not well-done and probably made of latex because it is deformed. This man also sold many castings of the skull.

The 1964 skull is a little smaller and, in my opinion, a little more graceful. Then there was a quite small skull, made to be used for bolo ties and the like. It was made in hard plastic, again cast, trimmed and painted by the Scriver Studio crew, mostly local Blackfeet. This skull was also incorporated into special door handles for the CM Russell Museum in Great Falls, since a bison skull was Charlie's logo.

Mary Scriver

Buffalo Skull
Some years ago my father, a naitve and current resident of Kalispell, Montana,gave me a Buffalo Skull sculpture made of plaster or perhaps it is Hydrocal. On the back is inscribed "Bob Scriver 1964". I really do not know the history of this piece and would like to hear from anyone who has information.

Rex & Iola Brenneman
The last I heard -- which was admittedly at least a year ago -- Rex had been pretty well shut down by strokes and Iola was struggling to transfer the business to a nephew. I believe he has a website.

The molds for speculator bronzes, which were owned by people who had bought the right to reproduce, were not destroyed at Bob's death. It's these pieces that are most often in auctions.

Mary Scriver

registered buckles banco banks
looking for information on a buckle "montana banco banks"

Bob Scriver
How are Rex and Iola Breneman doing? I purchased many Bob Scriver bronzes over the years from them.

signature
I never knew Bob to sign any bronzes with the initials "RS." I would be very suspicious that the animals were by someone else.

Mary Scriver

Bob Scriver's Initials?
On smaller animal bronzes, did Bob Scriver ever sign with his initials "RS"?

Three Bronzes
I purchased a set of three bronzes by Bob Scriver shortly before he passed. They are "Southfork Spring", "North Fork Wolves" and "Middlefork Grizzley" They were cast in Kalispell and may be among the last pieces made. I have not seen them on any listinigs or auctions. Can anyone tell me anything about these pieces? Are they well known, valuable etc.. Any feedback would be appreciated...jc

Sarah:Scriver/winchester rider
The Montana Historical Society & the C M Russell Museum each have large collections of Scriver's works & may be able to provide leads.

looking for
I am looking for the winchester rider piece from bob scriver for my grandparents if anyone knows where I can find this please let me know.. thank you Sarah

Major Exhibit
The Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is presenting a major exhibit of Scriver bronzes that will last all summer and until November. This exhibit was prepared with the cooperation of the Montana Historical Society. Native American artifacts from the Scriver collection are also exhibited in this museum.

Colored patinas
At March art events in Great Falls, I saw several castings of Scriver bronzes -- most notably a portrait of Ace Powell, his good friend, but also others -- that were patined with colors: red shirt, blue pants. It may be that some of the earliest sculptures by Bob Scriver are emerging from copyright protection. I'm told the Montana Historical Society, under law, is not able to renew the copyrights.

However, Bob never approved of colored patinas and these were not cast under his supervision.

Also, I've been asked to look at a casting of a portrait of C.M. Russell which had been slightly altered at the wax stage -- the head had been turned a bit. It was a silicon shell casting, poured solid and mounted on a marble base. Neither of these features is typical of a real Scriver bronze. There was a "provenance" -- a story about Bob giving the wax away -- but it looked to me as though a mold had been made from a hydrocal version of the piece.

Mary Scriver

Former Wife
Jeanette Caouette Scriver Chase died of old age in a nursing home in Grants Pass, Oregon, on March 20, 2005. One important casting, a bust of her brother, Maurice, was sold for a few dollars at a house auction in Sun City, CA, when she first became ill. It is white, hydrocal, and very classical with no adornment. Maurice posed for Scriver as Jesus in Scriver's corpus, Pieta, and Seated Jesus meant for a peace monument. Probably the buyer had no idea who Scriver was or who the model was.

North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame
Rex and Iola Breneman were customers of Bob Scriver for many years, building up a repertoire of bronzes, large and small, including some modeled specifically for them and sold with the copyright, and castings of the spectacular rodeo bronzes done at the end of the Sixties. Recently the Brenemans donated one hundred Scriver bronzes, worth more than $350,000, to the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Center of Western Heritage and Cultures: Native Americans, Ranching and Rodeo.

Located in Medora, near Roosevelt’s ranch, the North Dakota Hall of Fame is sort of a northern counterpoint to the Oklahoma Version where another set of Scriver rodeo bronzes is located, specifically the heroic-sized portrait of Bill Linderman that got him started on rodeo subjects in the first place. The bronzes are now displayed in the traveling exhibit gallery. Dickinson State University, which Scriver attended, cooperated by storing and displaying pieces. They will circulate through the schools in the winter when the museum is closed.

Scriver works
Last August Bob Scriver would have been ninety, had he lived. In the five years or so since his death, his reputation and works have not been much recognized, mostly because no public institution has funds to curate and display them -- neither the Montana Historical Society, which has guardianship over the bulk of the work, or the Edmonton Provincial Museum which has on loan the Blackfeet series of sculptures in case it becomes financially possible to display them with Blackfeet artifacts from the Scriver collection. Though the Cowboy Artists of America have promoted Scriver’s rodeo series, especially the large energetic portrayals of events, and the Blackfeet series has toured several major museums in the past, there has been little attention to the real heart of his work, which was Montana animals. Also, no one has discussed the anomalous little cluster of religious works, a complex resulting from a commission to do a corpus for a crucifix, then extending to sorrow over the death of his daughter, and finally a disastrous plan for a huge Prince of Peace. Partly because of this vacuum and partly because of mythical understandings of the value of early works by noted artists, the earliest works of Scriver (plaster tourist souvenirs that sold for less than ten dollars) are turning up on eBay and similar venues, sometimes even cast in bronze. The equivalent might be collecting Saturday Evening Post covers from the days when John Clymer created the originals for them. Very recently, persons with major Scriver bronzes are reaching advanced age or actually dying, so that the works they own are released to the market. The most major are estimated to be worth in the mid-tens-of-thousands. One must watch the provenance very carefully, since the motivation to make unauthorized castings will be strong. However, some of the earlier pieces will probably emerge from copyright protection soon.

Scriver Collection
We have been given the task of raising funds to open the Scriver collection to the public here in Helena, Montana. Right now it is in cold storage pending funds. I am looking for people who would be willing to donate or who would know people who would be interested in donating to open his amazing body of works to the general public. Thank you...Amy

Website for Bob Scriver
I have started a website commemorating the works of Bob Scriver and would like to share it with all those who are interested.

Death of Lorraine Scriver
Dorothy Lorraine Caldwell Scriver, 78, died November 3, 2002, in the new house she had built in Nanoose Bay, B.C. She was the fourth wife and surviving widow of Bob Scriver. She had sold or given to the Montana Historical Society all of Bob Scriver's collections.

Bob Scriver's art education
Bob's college art teacher at Dickinson College in N.D. was Zoe Beiler, also listed on this website. I have one of her paintings, which is a striking orange/purple/turquoise impressionistic painting of a small shack.

Bob Scriver Bronzes
Bob Scriver was a man with amazing talent. With his attention to accuracy of detail he is
considered by many to be a three dimensional historian. His understanding of his subject
matter is unsurpassed. If any one has questions about this great artist I would welcome the
opportunity to visit with them. I can be contacted by e mail at pvranch@cyberport.net, or
by phone at 406-858-2447. I dealing in a vary substantial collection of Scriver art and
would be happy to send pictures and prices via e mail.