Made of gold-plated britannium on a black metal base, it is 13.5 in (34.3 cm) tall, weighs 8.5 lb (3.856 kg) and depicts a knight rendered in Art Deco style holding a crusader's sword standing on a reel of film with five spokes. The five spokes represent the original branches of the Academy: Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers, and Technicians.
The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio "El Indio" Fernández. Sculptor George Stanley (who also did the Muse Fountain at the Hollywood Bowl) sculpted Cedric Gibbons' design. The statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years the bronze was abandoned in favor of britannia metal, a pewter-like alloy which is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and finally, 24-karat gold. Due to a metal shortage during World War II, Oscars were made of painted plaster for three years.
Following the war, the Academy invited recipients to redeem the plaster figures for gold-plated metal ones. The only addition to the Oscar since it was created is a minor streamlining of the base. The original Oscar mold was cast in 1928 at the C.W. Shumway & Sons Foundry in Batavia, Illinois, which also contributed to casting the molds for the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Emmy Award's statuettes. From 1983 to 2015, approximately 50 Oscars were made each year in Chicago by Illinois manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company. It takes between three to four weeks to manufacture 50 statuettes.
In 2016 the Academy returned to bronze as the core metal of the statuettes, handing manufacturing duties to Rock Tavern, New York based Polich Tallix Fine Art Foundry. While based on a digital scan of an original 1929 Oscar, the new statuettes will retain their modern-era dimensions and black pedestal. Cast in liquid bronze from 3d printed ceramic molds and polished, they are then electroplated in 24-karat gold by Brooklyn, New York based Epner Technology. The time required to produce 50 such statuettes is roughly 3 months. R.S. Owens will continue producing other awards for the Academy and service existing Oscars.
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