Max Ernst “Grande tête” pendant, cast and hand wrought 23K gold, made by Pierre Hugo, signed, original wood presentation box and certificate, No. 16 out of the edition of 24, c. 1970’s
Pierre Sterlé Paris, “Hummingbird” brooch, carved natural ruby in zoisite mounted in 18K gold set with diamonds set in platinum, original suede box, signed, c. 1950’s
Cartier Art Deco brooch, carved rock crystal with a fancy platinum mount set with diamonds, original leather box, signed c. 1925
Cartier Art Deco brooch, carved rock crystal with a fancy platinum mount set with two European and cushion cut diamonds (approx. 3 carats TW) further set with two European and cushion cut diamonds (approx. 1 carat TW) with diamond pave work filling out the surrounding floral motif, original leather box, signed and numbered, c. 1925
Faberge (attr.) Oval gold (18K rose gold) box with an extremely fine and intricately carved agate cameo medallion of Zeus, c. 1895
For a related oval gold and cameo medallion box in the Russian National Museum presented in the original Iosif Marschak Kiev box see: Illustration #560 “Faberge / Cartier” by Geza von Habsburg (2003)
Hunt and Roskell in alliance with J. W. Benson 18k gold pomander / vinaigrette in the form of an apple, marked, original red leather box, c. 1897
Hunt and Roskell in alliance with J. W. Benson 18k gold pomander / vinaigrette in the form of an apple, Marked: 307049 (British Registration mark), J.W.B. makers mark and British gold hallmarks original red leather box, c. 1897
The Tale of the Golden Apple
It was the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (the parents of Achilles) that the Goddess Elis threw a golden apple into the assembled crowd. Upon the surface of the fruit was etched “To The Faires”. Three goddesses laid claim upon the apple; Aphrodite, Hera and Athena. It was decided by Zeus, king of the Gods, that Paris of Troy should mediate the dispute. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida, the three presented themselves to Paris. It was decided that Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and beauty, had the superior claim and that the golden apple belonged to her.
Maison Ostertag Important French Art Deco Jewel Mounted Covered Box c.1925
MAISON OSTERTAG (Place Vendome, Paris) 1920’s and 30’s
ARNOLD OSTERTAG (Jeweler / Designer)
VERGER FRERES (maker)
Art Deco jewel mounted mechanical covered box c. 1925
Of rectangular stepped form, the black enamel box hinged and accented at the top with a gold bezel mounted sugar loaf shaped coral; spring loaded to pull down and reveal a cinnabar red enamel interior, the exterior with gold champlevé set highly stylized geometric initials and further ornamented with geometric square cut out gold applied handles embellished with salmon coral beads and red enamel bands, all resting on a recessed agate base and conforming black onyx base punctuated with a gold bezel mounted sugar loaf shaped coral on each corner.
Marks: Ostertag (on a gold plaque inset into the underside of the onyx base)
H: 4″ x W: 3 1/2″ x D: 3 1/2″
Arnold Ostertag was a Swiss-born jeweler who became a dominant force in the creation of fine jewels and objects in Paris during the 1920s and 30s. After studying dentistry in Chicago, Ostertag embarked on a world tour and, while traveling through India, became fascinated by jewels. He later settled in Paris and opened a very successful salon on the Place Vendome. In design and quality, Ostertag’s jewels, which frequently featured Indian themes, rivaled the production of many of the most famous Parisian jewelry houses. In fact, the renowned clockmaker George Verger/Verger Freres, produced wonderful clocks and mechanical objects for Ostertag, as well as for many other world renowned jewelers and likely masterminded the mechanism of the Art Deco box above. In addition to making pieces for Ostertag, Maison Verger made pieces for Cartier, LaCloche, Marzo, Boucheron, Hermes, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaumet, Mauboussin, etc. Arnold Ostertag was popular on the international front and made many trips to America spending time in both New York, as well as Los Angeles where he befriended many Hollywood stars. He also received commissions during his trips to make exquisite custom jewelry and precious jeweled objects such as this fine Art Deco box.
Alexandre Noll rare and early Art Deco mahogany and glass box c. 1930
ALEXANDRE NOLL (1890-1970) France
Covered box c. 1930
Mahogany with ebony peg details and 1 ¼ inch thick Saint-Gobain glass.
Marks: ANoll
Provenance: Private Collection New York, Galerie de Beyrie Paris, Odile Noll (A. Noll’s daughter), Alexandre Noll Estate
For more information see: Alexandre Noll, Olivier Jean-Elie, Pierre Passebon (Paris:Edition du Regard, 1999); Alexandre Noll: Les Matres de L’ Art Decoratif Contemporain, Collection dirigée par R. Moutard-Uldry edited by (Geneve: Pierre Cailler, 1954); Le Mobilier du Xxe Siécle: Dictionnaire des
Créateurs, Pierre Kjellberg (Paris: Les Éditons de l’Amateur, 1994) p. 455-456.
Japanese Meiji Period “Koi” Cloisonné enamel box. c. 1900
JAPANESE MEIJI PERIOD (1868-1912) Japan
“Koi” covered box c.1900
Cloisonné with silver wire and wireless orange enamel with silver foil backing and cobalt blue enameled background with silver foil and enameled underside, red woven silk interior.
Original wood hinged box with padded cotton interior, attached paper label of an unidentified artist cipher (see box cover).
Dimensions of wood box:
H: 3 5/8″ x W: 5 3/4″ x D: 4 3/4″
Jan de Swart hand carved Zebra wood Mystery box c. 1970
JAN DE SWART (1908-1987) Netherlands / USA
Mystery box c. 1970
Hand carved and assembled box form with a curiosity element of a large turquoise cabochon with raw hide wraps underneath the lid.
For more information see: Jan de Swart: A Day That Becomes a Lifetime, exhibition catalogue (California: Fine Arts Gallery at the San Fernando Valley State College, February 1972); Jan de Swart, Mike McGee and William G. Otton (Laguna Beach, California: Laguna Art Museum, 1986).
W: 16 1/2″ x H: 4 1/2″ x D: 5″
Price: $4,700
Constantly seeking and inventing new materials Jan de Swart was a true modernist. He was influenced by artists such as Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames, and later Sam Maloof and Wendell Castle. Although he had been creating small sculptures since his arrival in California from Holland in 1929, he had not been widely recognized until being introduced to John Entenza, publisher of Arts & Architecture magazine in 1947. Soon thereafter, he was able to create larger works and began collaborating with architects such as Whitney Smith and Victor Gruen on special commissions. His work is in the permanent collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Smithsonian, and the Ford Foundation. He was honored with the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Sculpture in 1965.
Bulgari, Rome, “Pocket Tape Measure” lighter, 18k gold with a concentric ring detail on both the top and the underside, signed: BVLGARI, BB back to back in a hexagon maker’s mark, 750 (in a rectangle), Swiss made, G. 137, original signed blue leather box with a tan suede interior, c. 1970’s
Joyce Francis “Banana Land Flowers” Bright Orange Box 2008
JOYCE FRANCIS New York, NY
“Banana Land Flowers” box 2008
Cast and carved bright orange Lucite acrylic deeply incised and carved with three dimensional images of a monkey, a butterfly, a dragonfly and exotic flowers and foliage.
The top cover dimension is 1 3/4″ thick and the four sides of the box are 1 1/4″ thick.
Marks: Joyce Francis 08
H: 6″ x W: 4 3/4″ x D: 4 3/4″
Price: $3,750
Joyce Francis is a native Manhattanite artist who specializes in sculptured acrylic jewelry, purses, sculpture, tables and coveted collection of exciting, passionately carved decorative boxes. All pieces have been painstakingly hand carved, hand dyed, illuminated and sometimes hand painted as well. There are no embedded objects. Her purses are part of the permanent collections of the New York Metropolitan Costume Institute (New York), The Victoria and Albert Museum (London), The Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland).
Her work is in the collections of a number of stars and celebrities, including Hillary Swank, Phoebe Cates Kline, Emma Thompson, Cicely Tyson and Meryl Streep. Examples of her boxes and lamps are also owned by Paul Simon, Paul McCartney, Steve Martin and Tom Hanks.
Andre Arbus (attr.) French Art Deco Straw Marquetry Box c. 1940
ANDRÉ ARBUS (attr.) (1903-1969) France
Straw marquetry box c. 1940
Natural gold and ebony stained straw inlaid in a design of a window pane diamond pattern on the hinged lid, original suede cloth/paper interior, wood frame
For more information see: André Arbus: architecture-décorateur des années 40, Yvonne Brunhammer (Paris: l’Editions NORMA, 1996).
Tiffany & Co. / Art Nouveau “Frog on a lily pad” covered snuff box 1880
TIFFANY & CO. New York, NY
“Frog on a lily pad” cigarette case 1880
Hand wrought sterling silver with repoussé and chased gold design of a frog sitting on a lily pad with a dragonfly in it’s mouth, “lap over edge” and hand hammered details, gilt interior and spring action to the hinge when the sides are pressed
Tiffany Archive Illustration: Design for Cigarette Case No. 5804, No. 1019, 249, stamped Tiffany & Co. New York, February 26, 1880
Model and Archive illustration: Bejewelled by Tiffany 1837-1987 Clare Phillips (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006)
For more information see: Tiffany Silver, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1978); The Silver of Tiffany & Co., 1850-1987, Charles H. Carpenter, Jr. and Janet Zapata (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1987).
Marks: Tiffany & Co., 5804, M, 2540, Sterling-Silver, 1019
H: 3/4” x W: 2 7/8” x D: 2 1/8”
The Frog and the Dragonfly
from The Lost Lagoon
by Reg Down, 2010
Once upon a time a dragonfly lived beside a lake high in the mountains. He flitted from bulrush to bulrush – and zipped after mosquitoes. He snapped them out of the air so quickly that no one could ever quite see what he was doing.
One day, as he was flying across the water, his beautiful wings glistening like rainbows, he came across a frog.
“Ribbit!” said the frog. “Come here, Mr. Dragonfly. I would like to have a better look at you.”
But the dragonfly was clever. In fact, he was so clever that his eyes were made up of hundreds of eyes all put together on the top of his head. And each one of those eyes said to him: “That frog wants to eat me!”
So he landed on top of a bulrush where the frog could not get him, and said, “Yes, Mr. Frog, I am close enough for you. What do you want?”
“Ribbit! Ribbit!” croaked the frog, “I think you should come closer because my eyes are not very good.”
So the dragonfly came a little closer. He flitted to a flower floating on the water—but still not close enough for the frog to grab him with his mouth.
“Yes, Mr. Frog, what do you want?” he asked.
“Oh, Mr. Dragonfly,” said the frog, “I have an itch on the end of my nose and my legs aren”t long enough to reach it. But your legs are scratchy—they will be able to scratch my itchiness much better that I ever could.”
The dragonfly found this quite funny. He thought, “That frog wants to eat me! I am sure that frog wants to eat me!” So he flew behind the frog and landed on his back.
The frog could feel the dragonfly crawling on his back, but he could not turn around to grab him. “Oh, Mr. Dragonfly,” he said, “you have to come closer to my nose. In fact, my lips are getting very itchy—please come closer.”
So the dragonfly went and sat between the frog”s eyes. Now the frog”s eyes were looking into the dragonfly”s eyes, and the frog saw that the dragonfly had far, far more eyes than he had. So he said, “Oh, Mr. Dragonfly, you are surely much, much more wise than I am. You have so many eyes that you can see the whole world!”
And the dragonfly replied, “Of course I can see the whole world! I have so many eyes that I am the wisest of all flies!”
“Well,” said the frog, “I have a little tickle in the bottom of my throat—what is happening there?”
And the dragonfly looked, and looked, and looked…….and Snap! the frog ate him up.
Albert Edward Jones British Arts & Crafts Copper and Lapis Lazuli Box c.1905
Albert Edward Jones (1879-1954) Birmingham, UK
British Arts & Crafts Movement
Footed box with hinged lid and hasp 1905
Hand wrought and patinated copper with riveted strap work and hasp, inset with 4 cabochons of lapis lazuli, brown leather and wood interior.
This box is a particularly handsome example of British arts & crafts metalwork by the famous designer / craftsman A.E. Jones. It retains its original deep, rich chocolate brown patina with the contrasting cobalt blue large round bezel-set cabochons of lapis lazuli.
Cloisonne enamel in a fantasy archaic Chinese motif in red, yellow, black and white abstract designs on a bronze body with a blue enameled underside and a wood lined interior.
Mellerio Paris Rare French Art Deco “Gyroscope” sterling cigarette box c.1930
MELLERIO PARIS Italy/ France
Gyroscope cigarette box c.1930
French silver (950 silver standard) in a structural form of a gyroscope with a lever for an interior lifting mechanism, gilding
Marks: Mellerio Paris, 3776 D, head of Minerva French guarantee mark for 950/1000
H: 5 1/4″ x Dia: 4 1/4″
The renowned Mellerio family and their jewelry can be traced back to Lombardy, Italy as early as the 16th century. Some family members moved to Paris and became royal jewelers for Louis XIII. The revolutions of 1789 and 1848 interrupted their business and they moved to Madrid where they became the jewelers favored by Queen Isabel II. Later in the 19th century they returned to Paris where once again they prospered and participated in several international expositions including London (1862), Paris (1867, 1878 and 1900), and Vienna (1873). In the 20th century they exhibited at the renowned Paris 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and then in New York at the 1939 World’s Fair.
Black Starr & Frost American Art Nouveau Sterling Mounted Jewelry Box c.1900
BLACK STARR & FROST New York, NY
Art Nouveau Sterling and Mahogany Jewelry Box c.1900
Mahogany jewelry box with thick sterling silver decorative graphic mountings in an elaborate Art Nouveau whiplash design, original key
Marks: Eagle mark (Company logo) BLACK STARR & FROST, Sterling
For more information see: American Jewelry Manufacturers, Dorothy T. Rainwater (West Chester, Penn.: Schiffer, 1988)
H: 4 1/2″ x W: 10 1/2″ x D: 7″
SOLD
One of America’s oldest fine jewelers, Black, Starr and Frost traces its roots to 1810. In that year, Erastus Barton and Frederick Marquand opened Marquand and Barton near New York’s Maiden Lane. The firm added and lost partners numerous times and it also frequently moved locations in accordance with the addresses of its prestigious clientele. Its merchandise was eclectic and greatly varied including, lamps, jewelry, paintings, porcelain, and artistic objects. In 1876, the firm changed its name from Black, Ball, and Co. to Black, Starr, and Frost, and moved to 251 Fifth Avenue. Its inventory became focused on jewelry and silver objects, some imported from Europe, some produced in-house. For many decades, the renowned jewelry house, Black, Starr, and Frost was considered one of the great American jewelers. In 1876, it was invited to exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia along with renowned firms like Tiffany & Company, Whiting, and Gorham. In 1939, the firm was one of five American jewelers invited to exhibit at the New York’s World’s Fair. In 1929, it merged with Gorham to become Black, Starr, Frost – Gorham.
Illustrated: New Bauhaus, 50 Jahre: Bauhausnachfolge in Chicago (Berlin: Bauhaus-Archiv and Argon Verlag GmbH: 1987), p. 177
H: 18 5/8” x 22 ½” (framed)
Nathan Lerner’s long career was inextricably bound up in the history of visual culture in Chicago. Born in 1913 to immigrants from Ukraine, he began studying painting at the Art Institute of Chicago at the age of 16, taking up the camera to perfect his compositional skills. At 22 he began doing a kind of photojournalism, developing his well-known series on ”Maxwell Street,” an immigrant neighborhood hit hard by the Depression, and also photographing the southern Illinois mining area. In 1936 when the New Bauhaus was established in Chicago by Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Lerner became one of its first scholarship students and turned increasingly to photographic experimentation. He began making semi-abstract, strongly Constructivist images involving luminous projections, solarization, photograms and other methods, and his interest in manipulating light led him to invent the first ”light box.” In 1939 he became the assistant of Gyorgy Kepes, head of the school’s light workshop; together, they wrote ”The Creative Use of Light” (1941). With Charles Niedringhaus in 1942 he developed a machine for forming plywood that was used in making most of the school’s furniture. After working as a civilian light expert for the Navy in New York during World War II, Lerner returned to the school, now called the Institute of Design, and was named education director after Moholy-Nagy’s death in 1946. He left in 1949, opening a design office that became nationally known for its furniture, building systems and glass and plastic containers (including bottles for Revlon and Neutrogena and the Honeybear honey container). In 1968 Lerner married Kiyoko Asia, a classical pianist from Japan, and over the next two decades made numerous trips to Japan, where he took his first color photographs, as well as Mexico. He had his first solo exhibition of photography in 1973 and thereafter exhibited regularly in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe and Japan. His work is included in photography and design collections around the world. (Roberta Smith, New York Times, February 15, 1997).
Bernhard Amster Austrian Silver “Winged Heart” Covered Box c.1910
BERNHARD AMSTER (active Vienna early 20th century) Austria JEWELER, GOLDSMITH AND SILVERSMITH
“Winged Heart” Covered Box c. 1910
Handwrought and hand-hammered silver in a half oval form on four cylindrical feet with heart-shaped finial inset with bone and stylized silver feathers
Marked: BA (in a rectangle 2x), Austrian touchmark for 800 silver (in a pentagon 2x)
For more information see: Blühender Jugendstil – Österreich (Art Nouveau in Blossom – Austria), Firmen und Marken (Companies and Marks), Waltraud Neuwirth, II (Vienna: Selbstverlag Neuwirth, 1991)
Mizi Otten / Rena Rosenthal New York Enameled covered box c. 1925-30
MIZI OTTEN (1884-1955) Vienna, Austria, later New York, NY
RENA ROSENTHAL New York
Enameled cover plaque with a “Fantasy interior scene” mounted in a leather covered wood box c. 1925-30
Marks: M.O.(on enamel lower left), RENA (Rena Rosenthal) on back of box
H: 1 5/8″ x W: 7 3/4″ x D: 3 3/4″
Price: $7,250
Mizi Otten was born in Vienna in 1884. At an early age she knew that she wanted to be an artist. Despite the objections of her parents, who thought it unbecoming for their daughter to paint, she attended art school, studying painting and decorative arts in Vienna and Munich. After studying at the School of Art for Women and Girls and the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna, she went on to produce designs for the Wiener Werkstätte in all areas of applied art: jewellery, metalwork, textiles, fashion, enamels, and commercial graphics. From 1920 she also designed large-format enamels. She was a member of the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group) and the Austrian Werkbund and took part in all the major Wiener Werkstätte exhibitions, including the 1908 Kunstschau, the 1915 Fashion Exhibition, the 1925 Paris Exposition, the 1925 Deutsche Frauenkunst Exhibition and the 1930 Werkbund Exhibition.
By 1925 her work was considered of such exceptional quality that it was included in the Austrian pavilion at the International Exposition in Paris. She won the silver medal for enameling. Among the many attendees at this prestigious and historically significant exposition was Rena Rosenthal, an important American dealer whose New York gallery specialized in contemporary German and Austrian decorative arts. She and several other dealers purchased Otten’s work and began selling it in the United States. Twelve years later she again won the silver medal for enamels at the International Exposition in Paris. With the threat of war looming, she immigrated to the United States in 1938. By the time she arrived in New York, her work was already well known in this country.
The year 1939 brought the artist tremendous exposure throughout the United States. Five enamels were juried into the Eighth National Ceramic Exhibition in Syracuse, nine works were shown in the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Denver, and five works were included in the prestigious Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. By 1940 Otten was firmly established as a prominent enamel artist in the United States. She went on to participate in three more of the Syracuse Ceramic Nationals—in 1940, 1941, and 1948. Her work was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the early 1940s. In February 1944 a profile of Otten was published in Craft Horizons. The artist discussed how her style in enameling had changed since she had come to the United States. She stated that Americans preferred a more naturalistic approach, as compared to the more abstract style she had developed in Vienna. She was happy to embrace this new approach to enameling, however, and found tremendous satisfaction in her work. In 1950 she and Kathe Berl cowrote and self-published a manual on enameling technique entitled The Art of Enameling; or, Enameling Can Be Fun, which was one of the earliest how-to books on the subject to appear in this country.
*** Prior to emigrating to the US in 1938 and while in Vienna, Mizi Otten used her European name, Mitzi Otten-Friedmann.
Rena Rosenthal (1880–1966) was a trend-setting American retailer and businesswoman.
Rena Rosenthal was a promoter of applied arts in the modernist style whose patronage helped launch the careers of such noted designers as Donald Deskey, Tommi Parzinger, Ernst Schwadron and Russel Wright. She established the Austrian Workshop,later Rena Rosenthal Studio and then Rena Rosenthal Gallery. She retailed exclusive handcrafted glass, porcelain, fabric, metal and wood objects for home adornment through her shop at 520 (later 438) Madison Avenue. Many of these items were sourced in her father’s and husband’s native Austria; her shop distributed wares from the Wiener Werkstätte and from the Viennese designer Karl Hagenauer. She introduced the work of Austrian enamel artist Mizi Otten to North America, and was an early promoter of English potter and painter T. S. Haile. She loaned German pottery and Austrian metalwork items to the Worcester Art Museum’s third annual exhibit of modern decorative arts, in 1929. While she is known now principally for her exclusive retail shop (regular advertisements were seen in House & Garden and Harpers magazines), her business was listed over the years in New York directories under “Painters & Decorators” and “Gift Shops”, and in Chicago under “Art Goods.” Rena Rosenthal was an influential arbiter of taste and fashion in the interior decorating world, particularly during the introduction of modernism to North America. She handled art works that ended up in collections of notable individuals like Geoffrey Beene and institutions such as the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
Gisela Falke von Lilienstein / Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik Vienna Secession covered box c. 1902
GISELA VON FALKE (b. 1874) Austria
SCHOOL OF KOLO MOSER Austria
BERNDORFER METALLWARENFABRIK Berndorf, Austria
E. BAKALOWITS & SÖHNE Vienna, Austria [retailer]
Covered box c. 1902
Silver plate mounts and cover, blown “meteor” glass.
Marks: BEPWF 1481, maker’s touch marks
For more information on Berndorfer Metallwarenfabrik see: Blühender Jugendstil – Österreich (Art Nouveau in Blossom – Austria), Firmen und Marken (Companies and Marks), Waltraud Neuwirth, II (Vienna: Selbstverlag Neuwirth, 1991), p. 221; Metallkunst, Kunst vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939), Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990) pp. 20-44.
Hayno Focken / Modernist round covered copper box c. 1935
HAYNO FOCKEN (1905-1968) Germany
Round covered box c. 1935
Hand-wrought and hand-hammered copper with brass details
Marks under the foot: HF (conjoined monogram)
For other works by Hayno Focken see: Metallkunst: Vom Jugendstil zur Moderne (1889-1939), ed. Karl H. Bröhan (Berlin: Bröhan Museum, 1990), illus. 177, p. 183; Avantgarde Design 1880=1930,Torsten Bröhan & Thomas Berg (Köln, Benedict Taschen, 1994) p. 116; , (Berlin 1937) S. 43f, Abb. 37, Abb. S 128, S 146, Sl 243; Die Schaulade 15 Ausg. A (1939) Abb. S. 197, S. 204, S. 213; Die Schaulade 16 Ausg. A (1940) Abb. S. 44, S. 51., S. 54, S. 71, S. 83. S. 89; Die Kunst 84 (1941) S. 136, S. 139-39; Die Schaulade 17 (1941) Abb. S. 13, S. 41, S. 82, S. 229;
H: 4 ¼” x Dia: 4 7/8”
Hayno Focken (1905-1968) was an eminent German metal artist. He completed his training under Professor Karl Müller (1888-1972) at the design and arts school on Giebichenstein Castle in Halle (Saale), which was strongly tied to the ideals of the Deutsche Werkbund and the Bauhaus. In 1932 he established his own workshop in Lahr/Schwarzwald and continued his work until shortly before his death. His artistic work always stood out with a strong preference for large, organic forms, a similar manner of surface design and the same adherence to the principle of handicraft. Even his artist signet was modelled on the simple, square castle mark. In the 1950s he became one of those significant artists who had a major impact on contemporary metal design. The foundation of his creative work was a masterful understanding of proportions.
Cloisonne enamel in a fantasy of archaic Chinese motifs in red, royal blue, black white and sand colored abstract designs on a bronze body with a turquoise enameled underside and interior.
Jean E. Puiforcat / French Art Deco Sterling Box c.1930
JEAN E. PUIFORCAT (1897-1945) France
ORFÈVRERIE PUIFORCAT Paris, France
Sterling silver with sterling and bone gear-like finial detail
Marks: JEAN E. PUIFORCAT, French Guarantee mark for 950/1000 pure silver, E.P. insignia (Emile Puiforcat)
For related works of Puiforcat see: Jean Puiforcat, Françoise de Bonneville (Paris: Editions du Regard, 1986) p.171; Jean Puiforcat: Orfèvre Sculpteur (Paris: Flammarion,1951).
H: 3 1/4″ x Dia: 3 1/2″
Jean E. Puiforcat is the most famous name of Art Deco silverwork. This is a gently tapered round footed and covered box of beautiful form and proportion with a contoured gear-like bone and silver finial. Overall it is a signature example of French Art Deco silver and dates from the late 1920’s and bears the early mark of Jean E. Puiforcat spelled out in addition to all of the appropriate French silver standard touchmarks. It is a really perfect example of French Art Deco silver by the French master of them all, Puiforcat!
George Richards Elkington British Sterling Trompe L’Oeil Covered Box 1854
George Richards Elkington (1801-1865)
Trompe L’Oeil Box 1854
Sterling silver shallow box with a hinged lid of a life-size trompe l’oeil damask napkin neatly folded on a gilt-sterling Georgian dinner plate
Weight: 45 troy ounces
Marks: GRE makers mark, London hallmarks for 1854
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