Important Design
Important Design
Robert Riddle Jarvie
A Rare Floor Vase
Auction Closed
June 7, 06:14 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 80,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Robert Riddle Jarvie
A Rare Floor Vase
circa 1902
patinated copper
impressed Jarvie
27¼ in. (69.2 cm) high
13 in. (33 cm) diameter
Treadway Toomey Auctions, Oak Park, Illinois
Cathers & Dembrosky, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2000
Cathers & Dembrosky, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2000
Sharon Darling, Chicago Metalsmiths: An Illustrated History, Chicago, 1977, p. 42, fig. 43 (for a related vase form)
Robert Riddle Jarvie is best known for his modernist candlesticks, which are popular with collectors and held in a number of American museums from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His copper trays, vessels, and desktop items are less well known but were a significant part of his oeuvre from the beginning of his metalwork shop in Chicago. Early articles on Jarvie always illustrated and discussed these copper objects, including critical assessments of his work in House Beautiful in 1902, The Craftsman in 1903, International Studio in 1907, and Art and Progress in 1915. When he opened his first full-time business address in the Fine Art Buildings in Chicago in June 1905, he found himself working at the same address as one of the period's master copper artisans D’Arcy Gaw (who later moved to San Francisco and partnered with Dirk Van Erp).
Sharon Darling notes in Chicago Metalsmiths that Jarvie changed course following 1900-1902 experiments with Colonial lighting reproductions and early candlesticks: "Jarvie broadened his line to include . . . handbeaten copper bowls, bookends, sconces, vases, trays and desk sets." Already in 1903 a critic in Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman magazine noted this new line of copper works, stating that "the graceful outlines and soft lustre of the unembellished metal combine to produce dignity as well as beauty."
The Sixth Annual Exhibition of Original Designs for Decorations and Examples of Arts & Crafts held at the Art Institute of Chicago in December 1907 is of particular note. Here Jarvie exhibited eight works, half of which were copper, and served as a jury member for awards given at the exhibition.
The boldly modernist, seemingly simple, form of the present lot belies the complexity of its execution. A perfectly subtle foot grounds the vase as its beaten form immediately swells dramatically outward. That fecund lobe at the base tapers elegantly to the central shaft, which begins at about one-third of its height. The conical ascent is similarly sophisticated in its gentle taper, culminating in a beautifully flared rim. Many of the details of the design play out to great effect on the massive form in a way they could not on a smaller work. The intentionally primitivist, or even archaic, shape relates directly to a few other Jarvie works and to similar Eastern European inspired works made at Hull House and Chicago area metalworkers inspired by that artists' collective. The careful attention and nuanced blending of hammered areas and those that are elegantly planished, as well as the warm amber patination, are among the most refined of Jarvie’s career.
It seems that Jarvie liked this specific form with a swollen pot-like bottom and tapered conical shaft as he made a virtual miniature of the work, which was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Leeds Art Foundation. About that vase, Medill Higgins Harvey, the Ruth Bigelow Wriston Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, writes: “This vase exemplifies the creativity and originality that defined Chicago’s vibrant Arts and Crafts movement and embodies Jarvie’s affinity for elegant forms and subtle surface textures and tones.”
Sharon Darling notes in Chicago Metalsmiths that Jarvie changed course following 1900-1902 experiments with Colonial lighting reproductions and early candlesticks: "Jarvie broadened his line to include . . . handbeaten copper bowls, bookends, sconces, vases, trays and desk sets." Already in 1903 a critic in Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman magazine noted this new line of copper works, stating that "the graceful outlines and soft lustre of the unembellished metal combine to produce dignity as well as beauty."
The Sixth Annual Exhibition of Original Designs for Decorations and Examples of Arts & Crafts held at the Art Institute of Chicago in December 1907 is of particular note. Here Jarvie exhibited eight works, half of which were copper, and served as a jury member for awards given at the exhibition.
The boldly modernist, seemingly simple, form of the present lot belies the complexity of its execution. A perfectly subtle foot grounds the vase as its beaten form immediately swells dramatically outward. That fecund lobe at the base tapers elegantly to the central shaft, which begins at about one-third of its height. The conical ascent is similarly sophisticated in its gentle taper, culminating in a beautifully flared rim. Many of the details of the design play out to great effect on the massive form in a way they could not on a smaller work. The intentionally primitivist, or even archaic, shape relates directly to a few other Jarvie works and to similar Eastern European inspired works made at Hull House and Chicago area metalworkers inspired by that artists' collective. The careful attention and nuanced blending of hammered areas and those that are elegantly planished, as well as the warm amber patination, are among the most refined of Jarvie’s career.
It seems that Jarvie liked this specific form with a swollen pot-like bottom and tapered conical shaft as he made a virtual miniature of the work, which was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Leeds Art Foundation. About that vase, Medill Higgins Harvey, the Ruth Bigelow Wriston Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts, writes: “This vase exemplifies the creativity and originality that defined Chicago’s vibrant Arts and Crafts movement and embodies Jarvie’s affinity for elegant forms and subtle surface textures and tones.”