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ArtNouveau Antique ArtistSigned Peacocks Set HandWroughtMetals Earrings & Brooch

Name: ArtNouveau Antique ArtistSigned Peacocks Set HandWroughtMetals Earrings & Brooch
Brand: Louis Comfort Tiffany
Price: 3350 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This antique Art-Nouveau period American-signed metalsmithed set features intricately etched, chased, chiseled and pierced curvaceous peacocks in unusual copper-gilt silver. "Sterling" is stamped on the 1.5-inch-diameter screw-back earrings, while the matching larger brooch fastens with a sterling-silver pin. All pieces are marked "Handwrought By Lawton" as they were made by outsider-artist David Lawton, whose last known metalsmith-shop was located in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1949. The earring fasteners date the set to the early 1900s when the Art Nouveau movement impacted nearly all crafts by artisans. We suspect that this set was made at the beginning of Lawton's independent career before WWI because after the Art-Nouveau period interest in copper wained while white metals dominated Art-Deco jewelry design. By WWII, American artisans once again gravitated to copper as another way to distinguish their bolder minimalist work, such as New York City-based Art Smith, Ed Weiner, Francisco Rebaje and Robert Otto Bade; Mexico-based William Spratling; and the California-based Renior workshop. Decades earlier, Lawton would have been influenced by the acclaimed Art Nouveau-movement works of American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany, who introduced his first fine-jewelry collection of mostly hand-wrought pieces crafted by Tiffany & Co for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Without factoring Tiffany's multimedia and multicolor materials or team of metalsmiths, we consider comparable to Tiffany's figurative designs Lawton's exquisite intricacy in stylistically depicting an exotic creature in nature with incredibly complex textural feathers and perch for its feet. Also notice that the peacock in the brooch is more expressive with an open beak distinguished by a miniature cut-out. For any collector of American Art Nouveau jewelry, this one-of-a-kind set is not one to overlook. It is rare to find handcrafted figural earrings before the Art Deco movement, let alone paired with a brooch. Later works by Lawton were made mostly in sterling silver limited-editions, with his last works including a copyright symbol.

Creator:

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Metal:

Sterling Silver,Copper

Dimensions:

Width: 2.25 in (57.15 mm)Depth: 0.5 in (12.7 mm)Length: 1.82 in (46.23 mm)

Sold As:

Set of 3

Style:

Art Nouveau

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

Early 20th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1900-1914

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use.

Seller Location:

Chicago, IL

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU3244219274382

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Shop All Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany

Louis Comfort Tiffany was undoubtedly the most influential and accomplished American decorative artist in the decades that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beyond glass, he worked in mediums that ranged from furniture and enameling to ceramics and metalware, with his Tiffany Studios producing highly collectible table lamps, vases, serveware and other objects.

The name Tiffany prompts thoughts of two things: splendid gifts in robin’s-egg blue boxes and exquisite stained glass. Charles Lewis Tiffany founded the former, and his son, Louis, is responsible for exemplars of the latter.

By the time Louis Comfort Tiffany was born, the stationery and “fancy goods” emporium his father had established 11 years before had grown to become the most fashionable jewelry and luxury items store in New York. Tiffany fils declined to join the family business and pursued a career as an artist. He studied painting with several teachers, notably the scenic painter Samuel Colman, while spending long periods touring Europe and North Africa. Though he painted his entire career, visits to continental churches sparked a passionate interest in stained glass. Tiffany began experimenting with the material and in 1875 opened a glass factory-cum-laboratory in Corona, Queens — the core of what eventually became Tiffany Studios, a multimedia decorative-arts manufactory.

Tiffany developed a method in which colors were blended together in the molten state. Recalling the Old English word fabrile, meaning “hand-wrought,” he named the blown glass Favrile, a term that signified handmade glass of unique quality. In his glass designs, Tiffany embraced the emerging Art Nouveau movement and its sinuous, naturalistic forms and motifs. The pieces won Tiffany international fame. (Siegfried Bing, the Paris entrepreneur whose design store, L’Art Nouveau, gave the stylistic movement its name, was the leading European importer of Tiffany pieces.)

By 1902, along with glass, Tiffany was designing stained-glass lamps and chandeliers as well as enameled metal vases, boxes and bowls, and items such as desk sets and candlesticks. Today such pieces epitomize the rich aesthetics of their era.

Antique Tiffany Studios table lamps are the most recognizable and the most prized. They range in price from $60,000 to upward of $2 million for intricate shade designs like the Dragonfly. Tiffany glass vases and bowls are generally priced from $1,000 to $30,000 depending on size, color, condition and form. Simpler accessories such as metal trays and small picture frames can fetch from $800 to $3,000. Tiffany design of any type is an emblem of taste and craftsmanship. As you will see on 1stDibs, Louis Comfort Tiffany ensured that each piece he and his company produced, magnificent or modest, was a work of art.

Find Louis Comfort Tiffany vases, serveware and other items on 1stDibs.