Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Plassmann, Ernst

PLASSMANN, Ernst, artist, b. in Sondern, Westphalia, 14 June, 1823; d. in New York city, 28 Nov., 1877. At the age of twenty he began to study art under Münstermann, and he continued his studies at Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and Paris. In the last-named place he remained about four years, being employed most of the time in the studio of Michel Liénard. In 1853 he went to New York, where, the following year, he opened “Plassmann's School of Art,” which he carried on until his death. The “Verein für Kunst und Wissenschaft” was founded by him in 1858. His principal works in sculpture, all in New York city, are the figure of Tammany on Tammany hall (1869); the group on the freight-depot of the New York Central railroad (1870); the statue of Benjamin Franklin in Printing-House square (1870-'1); and the figures of Franklin and Guttenberg on the “Staats-Zeitung” building, modelled about 1873. He executed also many models for statuettes and ornamental metal-work, and gained several medals at the American institute for his work in woodcarving and plaster models. He published “Modern Gothic Ornaments,” with 33 plates (New York, 1875), and “Designs for Furniture” (1877). Of the latter, only three parts were published.