Pangolin Editions was started in 1985 by Rungwe Kingdon and Claude Koenig in a ramshackle greenhouse in an Oxfordshire country garden. The foundry grew rapidly from its modest beginnings and in early 1988 sought new premises in Chalford’s Golden Valley on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment.
In 1991, the demand from artists for casting larger works led to further expansion in order to accommodate sand-casting alongside the more traditional lost wax facilities. The following decades saw continuing research into casting techniques and the foundry can now select from six different methods in order to achieve the best result for each sculpture.
Pangolin undoubtedly owes its success of the past three decades to working with some of the foremost artists of the late 20th and 21st century and strives to attract the growing number of contemporary artists who choose to explore the creative use of bronze as a medium. Through collaborative partnerships with sculptors it actively explores and innovates across the field of art casting. The most recent advances have been in the realm of digital technology, virtual reality and 3-D printing, which now has its own studio dedicated to the origination of artworks.
A team of dedicated craftsmen and women, many of whom have been with Pangolin from the earliest years, are central to the foundry’s achievements and instrumental to the continuous evolution of casting technologies. From the original team of two, the foundry workforce now numbers almost two hundred and it has grown into the largest in Europe. Pangolin Editions Ltd. is currently run by a board of six directors who continue its creative adventure and will steer it capably into the future.
