Bengal Tiger sculpture created by Charles Oldham for the Franklin Mint.
Charles Oldham with his original clay sculpture for On the Prowl, Bengal Tiger.
Although completed off-site entirely by Charles Oldham in his own sculpture studio, when the porcelain of the sculpture shipped, we found that the art director at the time (George McMonigle) had managed to have his name imprinted on it as the sculptor of record, and McMonigle’s name was fired on the finished porcelains! Soon to follow, we complained to the owner of the Franklin Mint, threatening to go to the popular investigative show at the time, 60 Minutes, to expose how Franklin Mint committed fraud in the marketing of its sculptures and collectibles (this was only one example—it occurred with other designs created solely by the Oldhams, and again, McMonigle’s name later appeared on our work, without our permission).
Linda Resnick, co-owner of the Franklin Mint, invited us to lunch and afterward, had the art director’s name removed from any new sculptures of “On The Prowl.” However, the initial run had already shipped and sold, unfortunately bearing the name of George McMonigle. There are still editions out there selling on the secondary and estate market bearing his name. For the record, we kept the original clay model in our possession after all these years to show the work as it was first created by Charles Oldham.