Edward Spencer attr. (1872-1938) UK
Artificer’s Guild  (1901-42)   UK

Pair of candlesticks circa 1910.

Handwrought iron with a squared central support terminating in a attenuated vine like wrap.

H: 10 1/2″ x Dia: 5 1/2″

The Artificers’ Guild Ltd was founded in 1901 by the metalwork and enameler Nelson Dawson (1859-1942). It was one of the few guilds inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement to enjoy real commercial success, and remained in operation until 1938. It was bought out in 1903 by the Birmingham entrepreneur Montague Fordham and established on a more commercial footing, producing domestic metalwork, church plate and furnishings, presentation plate and jewelry.

Fordham promoted Edward Spencer (1873-1938), previously Dawson’s principal designer, to be Director of the Guild’s workshop in Hammersmith. The Guild also had a showroom originally located just off Regent Street. Spencer died in 1938, shortly after the firm was wound up. During its existence, the Guild operated as a substantial business, employing over 40 staff at its peak, including a large number of skilled craftsmen, many of whom would have been trained in the Guild’s workshop. Although unacknowledged for much of the 20th century, the Guild is now recognized as an important producer of high quality metalwork and jewelry during this period.

JOHN PEARSON  (19th century) UK

Tea caddy  c. 1900

Handwrought copper with rivets, repoussé lid with 4 heart-shaped leaves, rich red brown original patina

Marked:  JP in an oval cartouche (on bottom)

H: 4 1/2″ x D: 4 1/4″

For more information on Pearson see: CR Ashbee: architect, designer & romantic socialist, Alan Crawford (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985), pp. 32-33, 46, 313-316;  Reflections: arts and crafts metalwork in England and the United States (New York: Kurland – Zabar, 1990), pp. 32-33.

Pearson was an original member of CR Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft starting in 1888. He later resigned to join the Newlyn Industrial Class. He also worked for the designer & ceramicist William De Morgan which is where many of his fanciful themes in repousse are inspired. He is considered one of the finest repousse metalsmiths of the period. His shop remained active until after the turn of the century, most pieces are dated.

HENDRIK PETRUS BERLAGE  (1856 – 1934) Netherlands
BECHT & DYSERINCK for ‘t Binnenhuis

Rare Architectural Candelabrum c. 1900

Riveted and detailed “Eiffel Tower” like form in brass and copper with four feet, small cut out  designs and two bobeche trays supporting five candles.

H: 14″ x W: 8 1/4″ x D: 8 1/4″

Hendrik Petrus Berlage, a Dutch architect and designer attended the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and a year later switched to architecture.  Berlage enrolled in 1875 in the architecture department of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Through 1878  Berlage studied in Zurich under Gottfried Semper, whose teachings had a lasting influence on his work. After finishing these studies, Berlage spent three years traveling in Germany (1879) and Italy (1880-1881) before returning to his native Amsterdam. From 1881 Berlage was employed by the Amsterdam architect Theodor Sanders and from 1884 Berlage was a partner in the business until he opened his own practice in 1889. In 1884 he submitted a design for the projected Commodity Exchange (Beurs van Berlage) in Amsterdam, winning the competition in 1896. This building, completed in 1903, was Hendrik Paulus Berlage’s first important commission, which also solidified his reputation. Also in Amsterdam and at this same time, Berlage built the Diamond Guild building (1897-1900). In 1900 along with the architect and designer Jacob van den Bosch, Hendrik Paulus Berlage opened the gallery, “‘t Binnenhuis”. They sold their own designed furniture and objects they from 1900-1929. In 1900 Berlage was also commissioned to plan a southern extension of Amsterdam. This was Berlage’s most important contribution to urban planning and he worked on the project until 1915. In 1911 Berlage went to the US, where he saw the new buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan. Berlage built his own house in The Hague and moved into it with his family in 1913. The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (1919-1935) was Berlage’s last important building, however it was not completed until shortly after his death. Hendrik Petrus Berlage was the founder of the “Amsterdam School” and was a pioneer of modern architecture in the Netherlands. In his 1905 essay “Gedanken über Stil in der Baukunst”, Berlage fiercely criticized 19th-century historicizing architecture as pompous, reserving his praise for the austere simplicity of early period styles. His criticism was severe since he stated flatly that historicizing architecture was all appearance rather than reality, was not art; too much was imitation, more iron was used than stone, and so on. Hendrik Petrus Berlage was therefore an early critic of Historicism even though his Amsterdam Exchange still reveals Romanesque features.

LOUIS C. TIFFANY (1848-1933) USA
TIFFANY STUDIOS   New York

Kettle-on-Stand   c.1902

Silver on copper with carved teak wood handles and finial in an organic-form and hexagonal shaped kettle-on-stand with burner

Marks: Tiffany Studios, New York (on all three pieces)

Illustrated:  The Art of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Donald L. Stover (The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1981), p. 88, illus. 189 (description on p. 96); Tiffany at Auction, Alastair Duncan (New York:  Rizzoli International Publications, 1981) p. 50, pl. 137.

A rare example of a subtle organic-form and hexagonal shaped kettle-on-stand emulating pooling water in a Japanese influenced design by Louis Comfort Tiffany and made by Tiffany Studios

H: 10 1/2″ x D: 8″ x W: 9″