## Facts

- T.D. Downing Company (Downing) was engaged as an architectural firm to design a church building in Vermont.
- As part of the door design, Downing specified six wooden panels intended to be carved with religious imagery and installed as components of the church doors.
- The door design depended on the panels: when the panels were removed, openings remained and the doors could not function as doors.
- Downing removed the panels and sent them to an English sculptor/wood carver to be carved in bas-relief by hand.
- Downing then imported the six carved-oak bas-relief panels from England into the United States.
- Customs classified the merchandise under TSUS item 207.00 as “articles, not specially provided for, of wood,” dutiable at 16 2/3% ad valorem.
- Downing protested and claimed the panels were entitled to duty-free entry under TSUS item 765.15 as “original sculptures and statuary … as the professional productions of sculptors only.”
- The dispute centered on whether these carved panels, made for installation in functioning doors, fell within the fine-arts provision or were excluded as utilitarian articles and therefore classifiable by material.

## Issues

1. Whether the imported carved-oak bas-relief panels qualified for duty-free entry as “original sculptures and statuary” under TSUS item 765.15 as the professional productions of sculptors only.
2. Whether the panels were excluded from item 765.15 by the fine-arts subpart headnote excluding “articles of utility or for industrial use,” given their intended role as integral door components.
3. If the panels were not covered by item 765.15, whether they were properly classified under TSUS item 207.00 as dutiable wood articles not specially provided for.

## Decision

- The court held the panels were not entitled to duty-free treatment under TSUS item 765.15.
- The court sustained Customs’ classification of the panels under TSUS item 207.00 at 16 2/3% ad valorem.
- Judgment was for the United States, and the protest was denied.

## Legal Principles

- A claim to duty-free treatment under a specific tariff provision must be proved by the importer; Customs’ classification is presumed correct unless the importer shows otherwise.
- TSUS item 765.15 is limited to “original sculptures and statuary” that meet the statutory requirement of being the professional productions of sculptors only, and it operates within the structure and limits of the fine-arts subpart.
- Under the fine-arts subpart headnote, the subpart does not cover “any articles of utility or for industrial use,” restricting duty-free treatment even where an object has artistic qualities.
- When carved work is made to serve as an integral part of a functional object (here, church doors that would not operate without the panels), it may be treated as utilitarian rather than as sculpture for item 765.15 purposes.
- Under the subpart headnote directing treatment of sculptures and statuary not covered by item 765.15, such merchandise is classified elsewhere in the schedules according to its component material; here, that led to classification as an article of wood under item 207.00.

## Conclusion

Because the carved-oak bas-relief panels were made for and functioned as essential components of working church doors, the court ruled they did not qualify for duty-free entry as “original sculptures” under TSUS item 765.15 and instead were properly classified and assessed duty as wood articles under TSUS item 207.00.


T.D. Downing Co. v. United States, 321 F. Supp. 1036 (1971)