Edward Spencer/Artificers’ Guild (attr.) British Arts & Crafts wrought iron candlesticks c. 1910
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.
Thomas Jekyll (attr.) Aesthetic Movement Iron Umbrella or Cane Stand c.1885
THOMAS JEKYLL (attr.) (1827–1881)
BRITISH AESTHETIC MOVEMENT
Umbrella stand c. 1885
Black nickelled and patinated cast and wrought iron,
sunburst detail and decorative fretwork
H: 25 1/4” x W: 13” x D: 9 1/2”
Base W: 9 1/2”
Although he was a successful architect, Jeckyll is best known today for his “epoch-making” designs in metalwork. His architectural practice routinely included the design of gates, railings, and metal fittings for domestic commissions and of coronas, candelabra, and altar rails for ecclesiastical ones. But it was his exhibition pieces for the ironworks firm of Barnard, Bishop & Barnards of Norwich that brought him his greatest renown. His “Norwich Gates” for the 1862 London International Exhibition set in motion the 19th-century wrought iron revival in Great Britain. Subsequent creations, including his “Four Seasons Gates,” exhibited in Paris in 1867 and Vienna in 1873, and his cast iron pavilion for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, received substantial praise, in particular for their creative use of Asian principles and motifs. His innovative Anglo-Japanese designs for stoves, stove fronts, fenders, fire irons, and other domestic metalwork were also produced and sold in large numbers. As these designs were both artistic and affordable, they allowed the incorporation of objects of beauty into middle-class homes. He was one of the few figures in the design reform movement in Britain who managed to unite beauty and utility.
A very intricately worked late Victorian or Aesthetic Movement wrought and cast iron tall stand for umbrellas or canes with delicately riveted cross hatch fretwork and curling details and handle motif along with an attached iron base with a sunburst design all in the original black nickel finish.
Otto Eckmann (attr.) Pair Of Hand Wrought Iron Floral Candlesticks c. 1900
OTTO ECKMANN attr. (1865-1902) Germany
Pair of candlesticks c. 1900
Hand-wrought iron with floral and foliage design
H: 12 ¼” x W: 8 ¼”
Price: $7,475
Otto Eckmann (19 November 1865 – 11 June 1902) was a German painter and graphic artist. He was a prominent member of the “floral” branch of Jugendstil. Otto Eckmann was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1865. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg and Nuernberg and at the academy in Munich. In 1894, Eckmann gave up painting (and auctioned off his works) in order to concentrate on applied design. He began producing graphic work for the magazines Pan in 1895 and Jugend in 1896. He also designed book covers for the publishers Cotta, Diederichs, Scherl and Seemann, as well as the logo for the publishing house S. Fischer Verlag. In 1897 he taught ornamental painting at the Unterrichtsanstalt des Königlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums in Berlin. In 1899, he designed the logo for the magazine Die Woche. From 1900 to 1902, Eckmann did graphic work for the Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft (AEG). During this time, he designed the fonts Eckmann (in 1900) and Fette Eckmann (in 1902), probably the most common Jugendstil fonts still in use today.
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