Design Toscano The Raven's Perch Gothic Decor Wall Sculpture, Single

This statue is pretty cool. Looks real and is pretty big. It looks life like on my wall

If rendered with a little care this could be outstanding. I just got to this thing today, having received it last week and given it a cursory look-see without my glasses on, in low light. First impression--cool!Anyway, I went to hang this thing over an expensive medieval-styled mirror tonight, and with work lights in place and my glasses on, I could see at once that the end of the raven's beak had not been carved, or shaped, or whatever they do. The bird's beak ends in an ugly, bulbous plastic tumor. Nice.For heaven's sake, they shipped this thing out like that?! I've quickly learned that you can expect wide variability in quality-control (and that's being kind) from anything made in China, because they'll happily ship you absolutely any old thing! Conversely, the Chinese are well capable of making high quality items with nice workmanship, provided they are motivated to do so.Last summer, I exchanged five expensive Chinese-made telescopes before finally switching models from the same manufacturer, to ultimately receive an acceptable sample. In fact, the last one delivered was ostensibly flawless both optically and cosmetically. Oh, they can do it if they want to!I'll update this review, provided they ship an acceptable rendition of this otherwise very cool wall-mounted figure. As I say, it has the potential of being an outstanding piece, and I'll go to the OEM to get a good one if I have to (my wife likes it).By the bye, this is not a heavy piece, and it is simple to hang if you have any savvy with these things. I'll explain how to do this quickly and easily, if they eventually ship me a good one.If this is to be a gift, order early and inspect it immediately in a well-lit room before accepting it. Good luck!UPDATE: Well, as usual the folks at Amazon had a new "Raven" delivered to me within two days of my asking (everything in life should work so well as Amazon.com!). The replacement Raven has a beak like the one shown on the webpage (so far so good). But the paintwork on the branch and other parts of the bird was better on the first one... Happily, my wife is an accomplished artist with all manner of paints, and has the skills necessary to not only touch this up, but to make it better than stock, so this one is a keeper!I'm bumping it up to four stars, because at this price-point, I've found no competition for it, and it really is very cool!This is a 3/4 wall sculpture, designed along the lines of a "frieze" that morphs flat into the wall. This one is done so that it's best presented on a right-hand wall, to be viewed obliquely from the front and side, since the left rear quarter sort of disappears into the wall.My method for hanging things like this is to insert plastic wall anchors into the hanger holes at the back of the sculpture, making sure they're perfectly perpendicular to the back of the sculpture (tape them into place if you have to), and putting a drop of liquid soap on the outside ends of the plastic anchors. After deciding exactly where I want the sculpture, and how I want it orientated, I gently press the whole thing against the wall without twisting or dragging it in the slightest, leaving two round spots where the liquid soap marked the wall. I then center a nail or screw in each soap dot, and start a hole. In my case, I was able to drill a pilot hole in each "soap dot" using a drill bit just slightly smaller than the mounting screw. I then carefully turned a screw into both holes, straight into the plaster with a power screw driver, leaving about 1/8" of each screw sticking out. I then carefully aligned the hangers with the screw, taking care not to scratch the wall, and the screws slid right into the hanger holes on the first attempt.Note: You may want to paint or color the hanging hardware "black" before mounting the raven, as the bright silver hardware will show up between the wall and the sculpture. I used a permanent black magic marker for this, and since the hardware's in shadow, you don't even see it now. In this case, I only used the plastic anchors to mark the wall, and did not use them to mount the sculpture (in this location, I am confident that it will hold with just the screws).RayB

Beautiful representation of a raven. Nice and big, looks great on the wall. Wish it was a little less expensive but I love it.

This companies artists are top of the line. The bird is flat on the back and I was worried I wouldn't like him. I was surprised I loved it. The head and shoulders can create a shadow on the wall which helps the illusion of the bird sitting on a branch. bravo

Purchased because I love ravens, which are very common in my area. Love the 3-D effect. As described, well packed.

Very detailed claws, plumage, beak, etc. Nice and solid. Easy to hang if you first place a piece of paper over the holes, mark where the holes are on the paper, and then put the paper on the wall and hammer your nails through the marks on the paper. Like someone else noted, you have to have some sort of a guide, and this strategy worked well for me. I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because of this, and because I feel like it should have some color variation. The branch on which the bird is perched should be in varying shades of brown, instead of black like the bird, because otherwise, from across the room, it's difficult to make-out the bird. I wound-up hand-painting the branch in brown tones. But really an interesting little addition to the home. Overall, I recommend.

i love this raven. he is awesome, as i suspected he would be. the reason he got 3 stars instead of 5 is because of the way they expect you to hang him up. on the back of the plaque are two keyhole hangers. there is no template, no way to mark the holes and to top it all off they are not even directly across from one another. they are at an angle, so that is an added challenge. i made my own template, thinking that i solved that problem, but i soon realized that marking the holes was the least of my worries. the screws they supplied have heads that are the exact same size as the keyholes, so both screws have to go straight into the keyhole at the same time. it's impossible (well for me anyhow lol). my recommendation is to buy this plaque because it is very unique and finely detailed. do not even attempt to use the screws they supplied. save yourself a headache and make a template and then find screws that are more forgiving!

Everything I had hoped for and more. It wasn’t as a gift and was extremely well-received.

Was thoroughly impressed with the detail of this piece… very impressive! Love it!

I absolutely love this Raven. It is so unusual in that it is a wall mounted figure, and the detail is brilliant. Each individual feather is detailed as are the talons and it is quite a large size so looks impressive on my bedroom wall. It looks great in daylight and amazing in a dimmed light or candle light. This would really suit a gothic setting, but also suits my room which has a British wildlife theme. It was easy to put up with two holes at the back, slightly off set, and included are the fittings (2 screws and 2 plugs). I drilled level holes though (obviously at the same distance apart!) so I could have it leaning more which looks perfect. I can't believe it was such a cheap price and only hope they make another one facing the opposite way! This will be such a talking point in any home and is certainly one of my favourite buys for some time.

My girlfriend and I absolutely love this decoration! Easy to put up and it fits in very well with our Norse/d&d game room. It looks surprisingly realistic and adds such a cool flavour to the space instead of just another picture or painting. Love the 3D effect.

The first thing to say is that this is more a sculpted wall plaque than a sculpture. The head and beak are fully rendered but everything else is flat on one side. To be honest, I couldn't imagine how they'd make this any different for the purpose it's intended for. So, you have two holes on the flat side for screws to fit and lock through and the plaque is secure. This is a near life sized depiction of a Raven and it's incredibly well detailed. In fact, I'm not sure how it could be improved, since the colours are just right and so is the pose. Very nicely done, and not a mad price either.

This bird is absolutely amazing! I've already rebought it twice for two of my friends as gifts. Originally I had got it to go in my kitchen amongst my plants. However it didn't really work anywhere and then I decided to put it in my room and suddenly it transformed itself into a necklace holder and oh my gosh I absolutely love it