SAMUEL YELLIN METALWORKERS Making art out of iron

A woman keeps her grandfather's legacy alive.
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) -- At a forge near West Chester, metalworkers Peter Renzetti and Chris Tierney have just completed a one-of-a-kind birdcage.
Renzetti drilled 1,383 joints to connect wiring in the bronze cage, which is 40 inches long, 20 inches wide, and 27 inches in height. There are 250 vertical bars, each half an inch apart and darkened with oxide chemicals.
"It's pretty nifty," Renzetti said.
In a visit to the shop, Eric Wildrick, a sculptor on the faculty of the State University of New York at Purchase, said the job must have entailed hundreds of hours of work.
"It has been meticulously crafted and the quality is exceptional," Wildrick said.
The cage and its 50-pound steel stand will soon be shipped to the owner of a pet canary in Texas.
Clare Yellin, 54, will not identify the buyer of the cage or the price, but she indicated that it was expensive.
As head of Samuel Yellin Metalworkers, she employs Renzetti and Tierney and negotiated the deal with the wealthy Texan.
You might call Clare Yellin the "keeper of the iron." She is keeping alive the name and the business of her illustrious grandfather, who built an international reputation with hammer, anvil and insight.
Company's roots
Born in Poland in 1885, Samuel Yellin apprenticed to a master metalworker at the age of 9 and became a master himself at 18. He settled in Philadelphia in 1905 and soon thereafter launched his remarkable career. Over three decades, his shop at 55th and Arch streets produced decorative metalwork for universities, museums, churches, public buildings and the private residences of such capitalist titans as J.P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt and Henry Clay Frick.
Yellin designed and executed all of the decorative ironwork for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's main building in the 1920s. Some of his finest interior metalwork was executed at the National Cathedral in Washington.
At its peak, Yellin's business counted more than 250 employees. However, demand for his decorative metal creations slowed during the Great Depression and his work force shrank to 100.
On his death at the age of 55 in 1940, about 50 worked at his shop.
Son takes over
Samuel Yellin's son, Harvey, was then studying architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He got his degree in 1941, served four years in the Army, and then took over the business from his widowed mother, Leah. The work force was down to about 10.
Harvey Yellin kept the firm afloat until his death in 1985. His widow, Marian, who had been a Navy officer and held a master's degree from New York University, ran the pared-down operation for two years until her daughter, Clare, a Denison University graduate, took over.
"I came in gradually," Clare Yellin said. Although not an ironworker, she loves blacksmithing. "The iron grows on you," she said.
Her motto became: "I don't want to be big; I just want to be good."
Bigness was out of the question for Yellin, but continued high quality wasn't. In 1992, with her West Philadelphia shop deteriorating, she moved her business to a forge owned by Peter Renzetti on Brinton's Hill Road in Dilworthtown, Chester County.
Today
Now Renzetti and Chris Tierney are the company's ironworkers and Clare Yellin is the designer and business person.
"There are three of us, but others flit in and out," said Yellin, adding figuratively that "we all work for my grandfather."
Her tiny firm has executed exterior light fixtures for residences in a dozen states from Maine to California.
"I don't advertise, but people get in touch," Yellin said. She never engages in competitive bidding for jobs because her output is so unusual.
"The work is expensive," she said. "We're at the high end because every piece is one of a kind."