'An Englishman in LA's' Jeff Cane creates and recreates astonishing emotional art on aged wood tablets (various shapes and sizes), ancient tiles, charger plates and parchment prints that are more realistic than the originals! His image range of Angels, Crosses and spiritual artwork (most his own writing and photography), including marriage, birth & graduation documents have been best sellers for 14 years and have elicited very powerful emotions from many store owners, designers (especially) and clients over the period. His company makes ALL the artifacts the artwork adorns! If you want it 'old & realistic' this is the 'go to' company.
This is his story...
Cane didn't have to leave England, he had within 6 years (1979 -85) pioneered a bizarre idea to million pound fruition and in doing so created an entire new arm of the UK entertainment industry. The years that followed 1985 - '91 were joyously successful, the money rolled in. The problem was, everybody and their dog copied him. Like a successful jean company his company stayed on top of the pile (they are still alive today) but the money didn't seem to equal the excitement of the challenge of those pioneering days, he fully admits he somewhat sold out to the pound.
It was the late summer of 1991 and Cane's London party was very much swinging and he was successful and in control - or so he thought. A chance holiday, his first to Los Angeles, was to give him his second shot at pioneering - he had no idea...
He visited with his girlfriend, an accomplished London Aromatherapist. When asked as to what each did for a living, Cane's was somewhat understood, his partners replies were met with glazed looks, nobody then knew what an Aromatherapist did with these smelly oils! Cane realized after he's seen many a London client not wanting to leave the serenity of a massage to go back into the real world, how effective her work was and nobody in LA knew what this was!! He told me his stomach dropped so hard when he couldn't get the potential out of his head, that he felt like he had a hole at his midriff!
Let me just tell you this was a find of monumental proportions, his girlfriend was a beautiful Brit that had 4 generations of family in Kenya, many of them healers and was armed with pictures of her strolling through the African landscape with an unleashed Cheetah at her side, nose to nose and playing with the animal. The pictures looked as it they came out of the most expensive Vogue photo shoots. These shots together with her beauty and therapy abilities in Tinsletown intoxicated Cane's sensibilities.
"Oh my God what am I thinking" he tells me was all that ran through his brain, "how can I go back and give up all that security" - he did!
He was right on the money, within months of being here and after giving some trial massages she was already into the Hollywood 'hoi polloi' and then it happened. The very mindset that was crucial to the success of this venture was it's undoing, "I can't deal with these crazy people, they are driving me mad." Cane calmed his girlfriend down but after a few more days of the same this beautiful woman that had no problem with the wild African animals, could not be at ease with the Los Angeles ones. As he puts it "my nightmare had begun, one thing was for sure, I was not going back with my tail between my legs and be greeted by the 'I told you so' brigade."
Still with (some) finances in hand he thought long and hard as to how he could reinvent himself, he says, "the only equation I could put together that seemed feasible that I felt would work was, a gift of some kind, European in nature and it had to be personal...
"He was about to be right again...
"The most unusual company this side of the 15th century" came about when Jeff Cane decided to bring romance, chivalry and European history together to form a personalized gift that people could buy in Los Angeles - The City of Angels... That gift was called parchment poetry and was the infant child of what Cane now describes as an entire museum where you can take (and pay of course) the exhibits home - an incredible 17 year spiritual, medieval and recreational journey!
For his poetry piece Cane created (without prior knowledge) what he thought resembled real parchment (a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin) out of a particular brand of paper. He effected the paper in such a way that it truly resembled the skins of yesteryears documents. Eager to check his 'forgery' he went back to the UK and to the British Museum, which amongst other 'jewels', houses The Magna Carta. To his astonishment not only did his 'parchment' resemble many of the priceless 'gems' behind glass cases in their look, but the gold leafing he'd done almost gave him the ability to replace the real with his fake!
Unable to fathom where 'his gift' had come from he set about pursuing the rich and famous with his unique 'parchment' & poetry skills - sure in the fact that he had a very realistic medieval knack for recreating. It wasn't long before he was resident 'gift maker' for Leeza Gibbons and her daytime talk show guests. Several of which now own 'Englishman' parchments, amongst them, Pamela Anderson has birth certificates for both of her sons and Roseanne has her wedding vows.
Cane quickly moved to add to his ancient repertoire (now he had perfected the 'parchment) by recreating ancient art and framing it, this led to 2 major restaurants on Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood (cafe society hangouts) hanging hisforgeries many recreations.
The next 'parchment' creation was a medieval and romantic fully personalized Marriage Certificate, a natural progression from his poetry document. This lavish gold leafed creation has garnered Cane more press than any item he has ever produced and still manages to do so.
Cane's unique entrepreneurial skills were tested when a colleague (still very instrumental in his life) suggested he make something more commercial as she was taking her first booth at the LA gift show and the current work was way to time consuming to go commercial. It was then that he crafted his first artifact and worked on a way to create it commercially whilst ALWAYS keeping the hand-made look. The result is the very accurate (to medieval standards) Wood Tablet, a humble title for such a versatile archival art vehicle. This artifact has stood the test of time - 17 years later it is still successfully in production in many and various sizes!
Everything 'An Englishman in LA' makes is hand made to order in The City of Angels.
In 1994 Cane made a very, very important decision that was to spiritually change his life! It was a time when every art company was pillaging history for angels and they were selling. Not wanting to be part of the 'herd' but not miss a trend, he went back to London to a place he'd never visited as a resident, a place that he'd heard of many times, 'A place of Angels'...
'Tourist' Cane photographed a Victorian cemetery in North London on a day that held many surprises (fully documented in the amazing true story 'A Place of Angels' that accompanies each angel artifact) - on that overcast and briefly rainy London day he had no idea of the impact of that which he had captured with his lens...
On his return to LA he put his Angels onto the market to astounding success - 5 years later he went back to, as he put it, "to take better photographs" - in that visit he also photographed the world famous Pere Lachais cemetery in Paris.What happened this time round in the London cemetery is told in part 2 of the story.
Cane realized that just to create on wood was not enough and when he uncovered some wonderful 16th century tile artwork he wondered as to how to recreate a tile, so accurate that it would again be right at home in a museum. Much ferreting and a chance visual as to how to make a finish that would enable him to use any artwork in history, led to the creation of his unique range of ancient tiles. His first bare tile was a purchase, it came from a 17th century French chateau, "it was beautiful". It didn't take long for him to realize the danger of not making the base product himself, the tiles dried up, the Chateau's stood - what was a fellow to do? "Make my own" was the cry and that is exactly what he did. Moulded on the original French tiles his replicas are exquisite - convincing enough to get him a full page feature feature in the LA Times - his second in fact!
I should perhaps explain that to get the attention of the LA Times editor, Cane sent one of his 12" 7lb tile replicas to her - cold! She responded within 3 days - unable to fathom why she had received this majestic gift with only a business card (the rest of the package, checked for bombs, anthrax and fatwahs had been lost along the way). She then uttered the words Cane was waiting to hear "I have received this lovely tile from you - is it real?" Intrigued that she had a 'great forger' in her midst she dispatched a journalist six days later. The young writer purchased over $600 of Cane's tiles as a result of finding 'Aladdin's Cave'!
Hot on the heels of his tiles came Charger Plates, these pieces, hand cracked (the images, Cane's artisans have to really crack the artwork to get the level of realism he requires) look as if they had graced the tables of Henry VIII's dining table and castle walls. When he recreates priceless plate images back onto these chargers the effect is astonishing!
Over the years Cane, a master medieval designer and recreator, has managed to garner much press and celebrity following, none more than with his Angels. The celebrity collectors & buyers of his work (that he knows about) are: Faith Hill, Janet Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, Cameron Mannheim, John Melendez, Howard Stern (Angel wedding present (recent) from John Melendez family), Mickey Rourke & Pam Anderson to name but a few. Cane has also created parchments for several studios & movies including Startrek - Generations and The Truman Show.
His Angel photography has outsold every piece of historic artwork he has ever recreated, a feat he still does not feel comfortable with. I asked him about this "I never think of myself as an artist, for me the true image of an artist is one that can create with paints and a canvas such clarity that it was as if I was looking at a photograph". Cane wears his artistic hat much like a child trying a parents headware for the first time, give him some years and he'll grow into it. He does admit to probably selling more signed angel artwork (his own) that any one else in America, the strangest thing and it wasn't planned (by him), he's doing it all from - the City of Angels! He added, "I have figured out the reason and it's more so now that ever, an Angel is one of the few pieces of artwork that once the purchaser gets it home it takes on a life of it's own - it becomes whatever they want it to be...
I asked him about his dreams and frustrations as he flits between the 15th and 21st centuries. "Firstly let me say that I hadn't planned this incredible journey that I'm on and for much of the years that I have been doing it, it's strangeness bewildered me. I think I realize that I have been guided to my dream by the people that have reacted in such a major way to my work - that dream being, to put an Angel/spiritual piece of work into every home in America!" An admirable & monumental quest indeed but we are talking to a man that nearly made every household in the UK call his telephone service (fully documented). An astonishing feat that he started with only a single answering machine!!
Cane tells of a bizarre product week not so long ago whereupon he sent artifacts out to the following, which indeed highlights his creative genius. The National Cathedral in Washington, Barak Obama AND Howard Stern - surely there are not many companies that could create for such diverse clients... The Obama piece breaks the mold as it is a contemporary design featuring the President, Cane's best selling angel and two American flags and it's on tile.
Where does he go from here, "Nationwide, I have to get exposure in other states and markets, I'm fed up with being a 'well kept secret' - the commercial pieces I have created cater for virtually every artistic/spiritual need there is out there - hey test me." He gets very animated and passionate when his frustrations rise to the surface, frankly I can see why. He has been represented(?) mainly only in California and is 'chomping at the bit' to get out, he fully admits he is a creative genius but would rather find a new idea and design than a new store. Having said that, he hasn't done bad to stay afloat for 17 years on his medieval wits! He has several unique products & more in the pipeline, many of which are as he put it "Achilles Heel pieces, they elicit emotion," and if a recent client e mail he received recently is anything to go by, lots of it! (see below).
Message: I am sure you get emails from people all of the time to tell you how beautiful and truly special your artwork is. I purchased one of your marriage certificates at one of the happiest times of my life, I then had a dear friend pass away and another friend (not aware of my love for your work) gave me one of your angels, and today I went into one of my favorite stores and was amazed to see all of your pieces on display. I was looking for a gift for my father for Christmas and found your wooden plaque with the poem "Footprints in the Sand" and had to get it. He is a man of great faith and was diagnosed with cancer 2 days ago, this will have such meaning to him at this time.
Thank you for what you do,
Lisa
As a footnote to the above and this pays tribute to Cane's creative & Karmic skills, he rewrote this most famous of spiritual passages and is the 4th person to do so - his footprints spells the word LORD downwards. Each of the 4 letters starting a paragraph.
Cane realizes like most of us that these are 'difficult times', he has the creative ability to 'turn on a dime' and is doing so by creating some lower priced items and travelling further down the spiritual path, a path that he notices is growing rather than receding - all without sacrificing quality, a moot point with him. I must point out that Cane hand signs every artifact that leaves the premises, even if the artwork is not his (they are hand signed on the front), he's that proud of the pieces his workforce (under a very watchful eye) create.
From getting this close to him I can honestly say that the irony is, 'The Angel Man' needs some real angels of his own to invest in his sleeping giant, a giant with wings, very powerful wings that could take him and his partners an extremely long way...
A top journalist in the UK said during Cane's pioneering days "Someone should give this man a radio show," eventually, to great success, they did - the call now should be, someone should get this man's 'show' nationwide - it's his time, don't miss the ride...
Take a look at what he has brought to the market, take a good look, this is all the work of one man (and his team) and he's doing it all from - The City of Angels...
www.greatforgeries.com
This is his story...
Cane didn't have to leave England, he had within 6 years (1979 -85) pioneered a bizarre idea to million pound fruition and in doing so created an entire new arm of the UK entertainment industry. The years that followed 1985 - '91 were joyously successful, the money rolled in. The problem was, everybody and their dog copied him. Like a successful jean company his company stayed on top of the pile (they are still alive today) but the money didn't seem to equal the excitement of the challenge of those pioneering days, he fully admits he somewhat sold out to the pound.
It was the late summer of 1991 and Cane's London party was very much swinging and he was successful and in control - or so he thought. A chance holiday, his first to Los Angeles, was to give him his second shot at pioneering - he had no idea...
He visited with his girlfriend, an accomplished London Aromatherapist. When asked as to what each did for a living, Cane's was somewhat understood, his partners replies were met with glazed looks, nobody then knew what an Aromatherapist did with these smelly oils! Cane realized after he's seen many a London client not wanting to leave the serenity of a massage to go back into the real world, how effective her work was and nobody in LA knew what this was!! He told me his stomach dropped so hard when he couldn't get the potential out of his head, that he felt like he had a hole at his midriff!
Let me just tell you this was a find of monumental proportions, his girlfriend was a beautiful Brit that had 4 generations of family in Kenya, many of them healers and was armed with pictures of her strolling through the African landscape with an unleashed Cheetah at her side, nose to nose and playing with the animal. The pictures looked as it they came out of the most expensive Vogue photo shoots. These shots together with her beauty and therapy abilities in Tinsletown intoxicated Cane's sensibilities.
"Oh my God what am I thinking" he tells me was all that ran through his brain, "how can I go back and give up all that security" - he did!
He was right on the money, within months of being here and after giving some trial massages she was already into the Hollywood 'hoi polloi' and then it happened. The very mindset that was crucial to the success of this venture was it's undoing, "I can't deal with these crazy people, they are driving me mad." Cane calmed his girlfriend down but after a few more days of the same this beautiful woman that had no problem with the wild African animals, could not be at ease with the Los Angeles ones. As he puts it "my nightmare had begun, one thing was for sure, I was not going back with my tail between my legs and be greeted by the 'I told you so' brigade."
Still with (some) finances in hand he thought long and hard as to how he could reinvent himself, he says, "the only equation I could put together that seemed feasible that I felt would work was, a gift of some kind, European in nature and it had to be personal...
"He was about to be right again...
"The most unusual company this side of the 15th century" came about when Jeff Cane decided to bring romance, chivalry and European history together to form a personalized gift that people could buy in Los Angeles - The City of Angels... That gift was called parchment poetry and was the infant child of what Cane now describes as an entire museum where you can take (and pay of course) the exhibits home - an incredible 17 year spiritual, medieval and recreational journey!
For his poetry piece Cane created (without prior knowledge) what he thought resembled real parchment (a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin) out of a particular brand of paper. He effected the paper in such a way that it truly resembled the skins of yesteryears documents. Eager to check his 'forgery' he went back to the UK and to the British Museum, which amongst other 'jewels', houses The Magna Carta. To his astonishment not only did his 'parchment' resemble many of the priceless 'gems' behind glass cases in their look, but the gold leafing he'd done almost gave him the ability to replace the real with his fake!
Unable to fathom where 'his gift' had come from he set about pursuing the rich and famous with his unique 'parchment' & poetry skills - sure in the fact that he had a very realistic medieval knack for recreating. It wasn't long before he was resident 'gift maker' for Leeza Gibbons and her daytime talk show guests. Several of which now own 'Englishman' parchments, amongst them, Pamela Anderson has birth certificates for both of her sons and Roseanne has her wedding vows.
Cane quickly moved to add to his ancient repertoire (now he had perfected the 'parchment) by recreating ancient art and framing it, this led to 2 major restaurants on Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood (cafe society hangouts) hanging his
The next 'parchment' creation was a medieval and romantic fully personalized Marriage Certificate, a natural progression from his poetry document. This lavish gold leafed creation has garnered Cane more press than any item he has ever produced and still manages to do so.
Cane's unique entrepreneurial skills were tested when a colleague (still very instrumental in his life) suggested he make something more commercial as she was taking her first booth at the LA gift show and the current work was way to time consuming to go commercial. It was then that he crafted his first artifact and worked on a way to create it commercially whilst ALWAYS keeping the hand-made look. The result is the very accurate (to medieval standards) Wood Tablet, a humble title for such a versatile archival art vehicle. This artifact has stood the test of time - 17 years later it is still successfully in production in many and various sizes!
Everything 'An Englishman in LA' makes is hand made to order in The City of Angels.
In 1994 Cane made a very, very important decision that was to spiritually change his life! It was a time when every art company was pillaging history for angels and they were selling. Not wanting to be part of the 'herd' but not miss a trend, he went back to London to a place he'd never visited as a resident, a place that he'd heard of many times, 'A place of Angels'...
'Tourist' Cane photographed a Victorian cemetery in North London on a day that held many surprises (fully documented in the amazing true story 'A Place of Angels' that accompanies each angel artifact) - on that overcast and briefly rainy London day he had no idea of the impact of that which he had captured with his lens...
On his return to LA he put his Angels onto the market to astounding success - 5 years later he went back to, as he put it, "to take better photographs" - in that visit he also photographed the world famous Pere Lachais cemetery in Paris.What happened this time round in the London cemetery is told in part 2 of the story.
Cane realized that just to create on wood was not enough and when he uncovered some wonderful 16th century tile artwork he wondered as to how to recreate a tile, so accurate that it would again be right at home in a museum. Much ferreting and a chance visual as to how to make a finish that would enable him to use any artwork in history, led to the creation of his unique range of ancient tiles. His first bare tile was a purchase, it came from a 17th century French chateau, "it was beautiful". It didn't take long for him to realize the danger of not making the base product himself, the tiles dried up, the Chateau's stood - what was a fellow to do? "Make my own" was the cry and that is exactly what he did. Moulded on the original French tiles his replicas are exquisite - convincing enough to get him a full page feature feature in the LA Times - his second in fact!
I should perhaps explain that to get the attention of the LA Times editor, Cane sent one of his 12" 7lb tile replicas to her - cold! She responded within 3 days - unable to fathom why she had received this majestic gift with only a business card (the rest of the package, checked for bombs, anthrax and fatwahs had been lost along the way). She then uttered the words Cane was waiting to hear "I have received this lovely tile from you - is it real?" Intrigued that she had a 'great forger' in her midst she dispatched a journalist six days later. The young writer purchased over $600 of Cane's tiles as a result of finding 'Aladdin's Cave'!
Hot on the heels of his tiles came Charger Plates, these pieces, hand cracked (the images, Cane's artisans have to really crack the artwork to get the level of realism he requires) look as if they had graced the tables of Henry VIII's dining table and castle walls. When he recreates priceless plate images back onto these chargers the effect is astonishing!
Over the years Cane, a master medieval designer and recreator, has managed to garner much press and celebrity following, none more than with his Angels. The celebrity collectors & buyers of his work (that he knows about) are: Faith Hill, Janet Jackson, Ozzy Osbourne, Cameron Mannheim, John Melendez, Howard Stern (Angel wedding present (recent) from John Melendez family), Mickey Rourke & Pam Anderson to name but a few. Cane has also created parchments for several studios & movies including Startrek - Generations and The Truman Show.
His Angel photography has outsold every piece of historic artwork he has ever recreated, a feat he still does not feel comfortable with. I asked him about this "I never think of myself as an artist, for me the true image of an artist is one that can create with paints and a canvas such clarity that it was as if I was looking at a photograph". Cane wears his artistic hat much like a child trying a parents headware for the first time, give him some years and he'll grow into it. He does admit to probably selling more signed angel artwork (his own) that any one else in America, the strangest thing and it wasn't planned (by him), he's doing it all from - the City of Angels! He added, "I have figured out the reason and it's more so now that ever, an Angel is one of the few pieces of artwork that once the purchaser gets it home it takes on a life of it's own - it becomes whatever they want it to be...
I asked him about his dreams and frustrations as he flits between the 15th and 21st centuries. "Firstly let me say that I hadn't planned this incredible journey that I'm on and for much of the years that I have been doing it, it's strangeness bewildered me. I think I realize that I have been guided to my dream by the people that have reacted in such a major way to my work - that dream being, to put an Angel/spiritual piece of work into every home in America!" An admirable & monumental quest indeed but we are talking to a man that nearly made every household in the UK call his telephone service (fully documented). An astonishing feat that he started with only a single answering machine!!
Cane tells of a bizarre product week not so long ago whereupon he sent artifacts out to the following, which indeed highlights his creative genius. The National Cathedral in Washington, Barak Obama AND Howard Stern - surely there are not many companies that could create for such diverse clients... The Obama piece breaks the mold as it is a contemporary design featuring the President, Cane's best selling angel and two American flags and it's on tile.
Where does he go from here, "Nationwide, I have to get exposure in other states and markets, I'm fed up with being a 'well kept secret' - the commercial pieces I have created cater for virtually every artistic/spiritual need there is out there - hey test me." He gets very animated and passionate when his frustrations rise to the surface, frankly I can see why. He has been represented(?) mainly only in California and is 'chomping at the bit' to get out, he fully admits he is a creative genius but would rather find a new idea and design than a new store. Having said that, he hasn't done bad to stay afloat for 17 years on his medieval wits! He has several unique products & more in the pipeline, many of which are as he put it "Achilles Heel pieces, they elicit emotion," and if a recent client e mail he received recently is anything to go by, lots of it! (see below).
Message: I am sure you get emails from people all of the time to tell you how beautiful and truly special your artwork is. I purchased one of your marriage certificates at one of the happiest times of my life, I then had a dear friend pass away and another friend (not aware of my love for your work) gave me one of your angels, and today I went into one of my favorite stores and was amazed to see all of your pieces on display. I was looking for a gift for my father for Christmas and found your wooden plaque with the poem "Footprints in the Sand" and had to get it. He is a man of great faith and was diagnosed with cancer 2 days ago, this will have such meaning to him at this time.
Thank you for what you do,
Lisa
As a footnote to the above and this pays tribute to Cane's creative & Karmic skills, he rewrote this most famous of spiritual passages and is the 4th person to do so - his footprints spells the word LORD downwards. Each of the 4 letters starting a paragraph.
Cane realizes like most of us that these are 'difficult times', he has the creative ability to 'turn on a dime' and is doing so by creating some lower priced items and travelling further down the spiritual path, a path that he notices is growing rather than receding - all without sacrificing quality, a moot point with him. I must point out that Cane hand signs every artifact that leaves the premises, even if the artwork is not his (they are hand signed on the front), he's that proud of the pieces his workforce (under a very watchful eye) create.
From getting this close to him I can honestly say that the irony is, 'The Angel Man' needs some real angels of his own to invest in his sleeping giant, a giant with wings, very powerful wings that could take him and his partners an extremely long way...
A top journalist in the UK said during Cane's pioneering days "Someone should give this man a radio show," eventually, to great success, they did - the call now should be, someone should get this man's 'show' nationwide - it's his time, don't miss the ride...
Take a look at what he has brought to the market, take a good look, this is all the work of one man (and his team) and he's doing it all from - The City of Angels...
www.greatforgeries.com
Cane can be contacted (whilst he's in the 21st century) on 818 364-1771
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