Marwal Industries, Inc.
aka. Marwal – Miami, Florida, United States
Marwal Industries, Inc. was a private company located in Miami, FL. It was incorporated in 1962, although it appears to have been producing pieces stretching back into the 40s.
Marwal offered a wide variety of plaster of Paris statuary, among which were several variations of head and shoulder busts of Polynesian/Hawaiian woman/girls and men/boys. Spanish themes included head and shoulder busts of conquistadors, bullfighters, and senoritas. Reproductions of famous sculptures featured Michelangelo’s Moses and Pieta and Michel Lucchesi’s The Ascent of Man. The garden statuary line had an 18" ostrich.
The company withdrew from the decorative/reproduction plaster of Paris sculpture market by the end of the 1960s.
Marwal pieces are marked as such with an oval stamp, usually on the back or underside. They are recognized by their precision paint jobs, with "eye lights" and careful shading.
Holland Molds and other hobbyist companies produced similar lines for hobbyist makers, but these pieces are not marked as Marwal and vary vastly in quality and paint schemes.