What a commissioned bronze costs, and why
Size, alloy, detail and the hours of chasing: the four things that decide the price of a commission.
Panchaloha, bronze, brass or copper: how they differ
Four metals sit side by side in our shop. Here is how they differ in colour, weight, price and use.
Customers walking into our shop see four kinds of metal on the shelves and often ask what the difference is. It matters, because it decides the colour, the weight, the price and where the piece will sit happily.
Panchaloha is the traditional five-metal alloy, mostly copper with tin, brass and small amounts of silver and gold. It is used for temple utsava murtis and for pieces meant to last centuries. It casts with very fine detail and takes a deep brown or green patina. Bronze, copper with about ten to twelve percent tin, behaves almost the same and costs a little less, because it carries no silver or gold. Our 9 inch Nataraja in bronze is ₹38,500; the same form in panchaloha would be close to ₹52,000.
Brass is copper with zinc. It is lighter in colour, a bright yellow when polished, and less costly, so it is the usual choice for large statues for a hall or garden. It does not take fine detail as crisply as bronze, so our sthapathis chase it more by hand afterwards. Pure copper is reddish, soft and very heavy for its size; we use it for small solid pooja-room icons of 4 to 6 inches, which are meant to be handled during abhishekam.
Every bill names the alloy, its rough proportions and the weight, so you know exactly what you bought. If you are unsure which to choose, tell us where the piece will stand and how it will be used, and we will suggest a metal.
