Product Description
Sara Sax / Rookwood Pottery Arts & Crafts Art Nouveau “Poppy” pitcher 1906

SARA SAX (1870-1949)
ROOKWOOD POTTERY Cincinnati, OH
“Poppy” pitcher 1906
High fire ceramic with “Iris” glaze depicting five salmon pink poppies in various stages of blooming all on a rare handled pitcher form.
Marks: RP insignia, VI (1906), SAX (intertwined for Sara Sax), 772
For more information on Rookwood see: The Book of Rookwood Pottery, Herbert Peck (New York: Bonanza, 1968) pp. 60, 63, 64, 112, 140, 146, & 156 ; American Ceramics: The Collection of Everson Museum of Art, ed. Barbara Perry (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1989) p.108.
H: 8 1/4″ x Dia: 4 1/2″
Sara Sax / Rookwood Pottery Arts & Crafts Art Nouveau “Poppy” pitcher 1906
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) UK
LINTHORPE ART POTTERY, Middlesbrough, England
HENRY TOOTH Artistic Manager Linthorpe (1842-1918) UK
“Flaring Lip” Pitcher 1879-1882
Glazed earthenware
Marks: LINTHORPE, Chr. Dresser (facsimile signature),
HT, no. 346
Illustrated: Christopher Dresser, by Widar Halén (Oxford: Phaidon, 1990), illus. 185, p.163; Truth, Beauty, Power: Dr. Christopher Dresser 1834-1904, exhibition catalogue Historical Design, Inc. (New York, 1998) p. 76.
H: 9 3/4″
The contrasts in Dresser’s designs for different materials showed how his approach to design was also shaped by the properties and nature of a material. In 1879 Dresser was appointed art director at the newly established Linthorpe pottery, near Middlesbrough. Founded by John Harrison, a local businessman, the pottery’s aim was to use local clay to provide jobs for local men. Dresser’s design for the moulds for the pottery were inspired by a wide range of cultures from Japan, Peru, Mexico, Morocco and Ancient British forms. These very striking pieces, with the metal oxides in the complex and innovative glazes providing the only decoration. All of his designs were impressed with a facsimile signature. When Linthorpe closed in 1889, its moulds were acquired by a rival, Ault Pottery in Derbyshire. In 1893, Dresser signed a contract with Ault for new designs specifying that each pot should be marked with his facsimile signature.
WOLFGANG GESSL (b. 1949) Austria
Arc pitcher – unique 1990
Hand wrought silver in a rounded arching form with a cylindrical luminous yellow-green acrylic handle
Marks: Wolfgang Gessl (script impressed signature), WO.GE (in a rectangle), Swedish assay mark for Stockholm, 925 (silver guarantee in a rectangle), Q10 (in a rectangle)
Illustrated: Gold and Silversmith Wolfgang Gessl: Exceeding Geometry, Kerstin Wickman, p. 17, cover.
H: 13 1/2″ x W: 10 ¼” x D: 4 ½”
Price: $27,500
Wolfgang Gessl was born in 1949 in Vienna, Austria and trained as a goldsmith with Professor Hans Angerbauer. Upon moving to Sweden, Gessl studied under the eminent silversmith Sigurd Persson at Konstfack, the National University of Art, Craft and Design in Stockholm, Sweden.
Wolfgang Gessl has had fifteen solo exhibitions including shows at The National Museum, Stockholm and The Royal College of Art in London. His metalwork has been widely exhibited in Sweden, Europe and the U.S and his pieces can be found in many private collections throughout the world. He has taught at Konstfack for more than twenty-four years, and continues to live and work in Stockholm.
1950’s ITALIAN DESIGN
Futurist pitcher c. 1950
Handwrought and hand hammered pewter in an overall footed ovoid form with a traingle form spout body and an elongated arching contoured handle
Marked: PELTRO with lion, MADE ITALIA
H: 15″ x W: 9″ x D: 4″
Price: $6,000
The 1958 classic film, Auntie Mame, starring Rosalind Russell, features this sculptural pitcher on the coffee table in the surrealist interior of Mame Dennis’ penthouse on Beekman Place #3, New York City.
SCHOOL OF MACKINTOSH (1868-1928) UK
Box with hinged cover c. 1900
Silver plate with a large abstract heart design and stylized Glasgow rose motifs in bas-relief.
Illustrated: Modern Silver throughout the world, 1880-1967, Graham Hughes (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1967), p. 145.
H: 2″ x W: 6 1/4″ x D: 4 3/4″