Posts Tagged ‘Modernist’

Art Deco European Furniture: ITALIAN CABINET, WALNUT EASY CHAIR, ITALIAN BUFFET, SWEDISH CHAIR, BELGIAN DESK, ITALIAN COFFEE TABLE

TREMENDOUS UPHEAVALS came about
in Europe in the wake of World War 1. The need for change was keenly felt by architects and designers from Italy to Belgium and the Netherlands, and from Germany to Scandinavia.
At the heart of this longing for change lay a functionalist ideology and a desire for art to accommodate the exciting technological advances of the early 20th century Mass-produced, functional furniture designs became the order of the day, a philosophy that was realized by Alvar Aalto in Finland and with the formation in 1919 of the Bauhaus by Walter Gropius. Internationally acclaimed, the Bauhaus sought to
bring together the talents of creative artists, designers, and craftsmen, to create prototype designs suitable for industrial mass production (see p.426).
Although the Modernist Bauhaus style prevailed in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, there were also architects and designers working in a more decorative manner. Using vibrant colours, and drawing on the Rococo and Biedermeier styles for inspiration, German Art Deco furniture exhibited Oriental touches in its use of lacquer, together with Cubist detailing. Bruno Paul’s “Room for a Gentleman”, shown at Macy’s department store in New York in 1928, was typical of the
restrained form of Art Deco that was pursued by these German designers. The room contained lacquered furniture with inlay work, and a rug with a geometric design. Many German and Austrian – mainly Jewish – designers emigrated to America in the late 1.920s and early I 930s, and joined Paul Frankl (see p.397) in developing the Art Deco style there.
NORTHERN EUROPEAN TRENDS It was in the Netherlands that the concept of abstraction was first applied to furniture design. At the helm of this revolutionary artistic idea was the avant-garde De Stijl group, formed
in 1917 by the painters Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. The functionalist furniture designed by the group was conspicuously absent from the 1925 Paris Exhibition. The Dutch pavilion there was designed by J.E Staal, a member of the Amsterdam School, which favoured the use of theatrical, expressionist, and Oriental motifs in furniture designs. Among the exhibits was furniture by C.A. Lion Cachet, designed for a Dutch ocean liner. He used dark tropical woods inlaid with ivory and lighter woods in traditional-shaped pieces with Oriental decoration and parchment panels. Jaap Gidding’s cinema and theatre interiors also followed the French Art Deco style. The Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam (1918-21) was typical, with its decorative, opulent interior, and special light effects.
In Scandinavia, Art Deco took a more classical turn with an emphasis on elegance, proportion, luxurious materials, and hand-crafting. In 1930, British writer, Morton Shand, defined the Swedish restrained Neoclassical style prevalent at the 1925 Paris
Exhibition as a “line characterized by its slender and almost elfin grace”. Exhibiting a similar style, Otto Meyer’s and Jacob Petersen’s graceful, curving chairs crafted out A sycamore and
mahogany were superbly set off by the batik wall-covering of Ebbe Sadolin in the Danish pavilion.
ITALIAN BALANCE
Italian furniture designers struggled to find a balance between the demand for classical elegance and the language of the sophisticated modern style.
Although ill at case with the display of sumptuous luxury that was the hallmark of French Art Deco, Italian cabinets, tables, writing desks, and chairs made full use of the beauty of lustrous local and exotic timbers. Many of them were embellished with bronze mounts, or lightly carved or
inlaid patterns of flower baskets, garlands, or geometric motifs that were typical of Art Deco.
The Italian version of Art Deco reached its fullest expression in the hands of the innovative architect Gio Ponti. He successfully managed to combine the functional, geometric, spare structure promoted by the Wiener Werkstatte designers with the sophisticated and elegant refinements of the French Art Deco style.

ITALIAN COFFEE TABLE
This fine Italian coffee table has a rectangular glass-topped surface on tapering plank legs. It has been crafted from bird’s-eye maple and ebony veneer. Exotic wood veneers, such as the ebony used in this piece, were commonly used
in European Art Deco furniture. The dark ebony highlights the simple geometric structure of the coffee table.
This Swiss walnut desk has a rectangular top with rounded corners. The central drawer and two flanking cabinets have decorative “English-style” handles, and the whole piece is raised
on square feet. The grain of the walnut has been highlighted, providing additional visual interest. c.1925.
BELGIAN DESK
Designed by De Coene Freres, this Belgian desk has four drawers, tapering legs, and nickel feet, and is covered in black lacquer. The sleek black design demonstrates a relinquishing of unnecessary decoration in favour of pure functionality. c. 1930.
SWEDISH CHAIR
This Swedish Art Deco chair is upholstered in brown leather and supported upon tapering legs, with two slightly splayed rear legs, and curvilinear arm rests. The backrest has a
central panel with burr wood and satinwood details. c.1920.
This bridge chair is one of a pair designed by De Coene Freres. The curved armrests form a continuous “U” shape with the bowed seat frame. The chair is upholstered in a red, checked fabric and has tapering front legs.

The rectilinear structure of the buffet is emphasized by the austere placement
of the doors and drawers.
The ivory inlay used for the drawer pulls is a typical Art Deco detail.
ITALIAN BUFFET
The shelf structure of this Italian buffet is characteristic of Art Deco design, combining clean lines and asymmetry with a luxurious and decorative burr wood finish. The shelf structure contains a mirror on a case with four small drawers and a twin
cabinet door enclosing an adjustable shelf. Subtle, inlaid handles are attached to the four drawers and the cabinet doors. The geometric shape is typical of Italian Art Deco, which took its lead from the Wiener Werlkstatte. The use of exotic timber is more typical of the French style.
The burr wood veneer
makes a boldly
luxurious statement
ITALIAN CABINET
This rectangular Ulrich Guglielmo cabinet has two doors and is supported on a square plinth lined with goat parchment. The doors have ivory mounts and the plinth is veneered with kingwood. Round ebony knobs, with gilded bronze mountings and keys, are attached to the 14 interior drawers. c.1930.
WALNUT EASY CHAIR
This continental walnut easy chair is upholstered in cream, a popular colour in Art Deco furniture design. The chair has broad, curving armrests, each supported on three vertical fluted rods, and moulded sledge-like block feet.

Antique 19th Century Scandinavian Furniture.

THE SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES
emerged from a period of economic strife in the 19th century eventually finding the confidence to channel the historical revivals of the period into a distinctive regional style.
DANISH TASTE
In Denmark it was the Late Empire, or Christian VIII style, first popularized by the architect Gustav Friedrich Hetsch ( 1788-1864), that held sway in the mid 19th century. It expressed
a rigid Classicism through applied ornament carved with urns, acanthus leaves, and similar motifs. Some of this decoration was not carved but instead was made from sawdust pressed into moulds, an economical innovation that illustrates how the profession embraced new technologies.
The improvement of the Danish economy in the 1830s was spurred on by a series of four national trade and industry exhibitions. The displays at these exhibitions were reviewed by a consortium of the cultural, scientific, and artistic elite put together by Hetsch himself. Under the
watchful eyes of these arbiters of taste, who included the physicist H.C. Orsted, the Danish furniture industry managed to avoid some of the creeping vulgarization that afflicted so many other European nations. Although there was a certain lowering of standards among the mass-market trade, the best practitioners maintained very high standards. Cabinet-makers in Copenhagen actually enjoyed joyed a boom that echoed that of 18th-century London, with master craftsmen beginning to combine workshops with grand exhibition spaces in which they could both display and sell their wares. C.B. Hansen, the
Court chair-maker, was among the first of these newly successful furniture-makers.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY
Swedish furniture in the mid 19th century was still dominated by the Gustavian style, which had emerged more than half a century earlier. Imitations and reproductions of the Rococo and Neoclassical forms produced during that time also remained extremely important. The very light, off-white stains and painted finishes that are hallmarks of Gustavian furniture were ideally suited to Swedish interiors, as maximizing available light was a boon in Scandinavian countries. The bois-clair look, a remnant of the Gustavian style, remainder firm favourite, at least for case furniture and chairs. Woods that could not be stained to achieve a light finish were often painted white or pale grey, or sometimes parcel gilt.
A version of the Danish style pioneered by Hetsch was adopted in Sweden for a time, but failed to survive the first half of the 19th century. Instead, the Swedish were quicker to embrace the Gothic-revival style that had been so successful in Britain. Hansen was one of the pioneers of the Swedish Gothic revival,
employing a much lighter touch than his British counterparts, to correspond to the pale Scandinavian palette.
Norway enjoyed a growing economy during the mid 19th century, and the laying of the first railways and a growing merchant shipping fleet helped to increase internal and external trade. Despite a growing nationalistic feeling, Norwegian furniture of the period was largely based on Swedish and British models. However, some of the vernacular furniture produced did carry a recognizably Norwegian aesthetic in the form of brightly painted folk art roses and other traditional details.
A SCANDINAVIAN AESTHETIC The Neoclassical, Gothic, and Rococo revivals dominated Scandinavian interiors as they did throughout Europe. Denmark and Sweden produced a great many salon suites in these revival styles, consisting of a sofa and four side chairs, sometimes also including a pair of armchairs. The popularity of these suites was such that they could be found in most fashionable middle-class homes.
Much of the furniture of this period was made from painted soft woods, such as pine or beech, and drew inspiration from French, Russian, and German designs. From about 1870, a
Biedermeier revival began, and lighter birch wood was used. Forms remained simple and veneers became thinner and plainer in design.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the Scandinavian furniture industry began to assert a distinct regional identity with the enthusiastic uptake of a starker, Modernist aesthetic. Lilta Hyttnas, the cottage inhabited by the great Swedish artist Carl Larrson from 1888, became the archetype for austere but homely interiors throughout Sweden. The textile and furniture designs of his wife Karin helped to introduce an abstract aesthetic to the wider Scandinavian consciousness.
This steel, two-door safe has a stepped top with two reeded finials and an overhanging cornice moulding with leaf-tip borders. The two cabinet doors have Neoclassical and foliate decoration and are flanked by circular pilasters raised on paw feet. Mid 19th century.
These armchairs are part of a suite of Danish painted furniture, which includes a settee and four side chairs. Each armchair has an upholstered rectangular backrest with laurel-leaf
cross-form splat, and downswept armrests raised on curved supports. The upholstered seat is raised on circular, tapered legs, which are decorated with leaf banding. 1880.
carving between rows of bead carving. The drop-in upholstered seats with a leaf-and-vine frieze and rosette corners, are raised on turned and fluted legs headed with fish-scale carving.
Late 19th ceolury.
SWEDISH CENTRE TABLE
This Gustavian-style painted table has a rectangular top above a bead and leaf-tip frieze with swags. Acanthus leaves adorn the tapering, fluted legs. Mid 19th century,
DANISH WORKTABLE
This Empire-revival walnut worktable has an oval top above a frieze drawer. Supported on two tapering legs, it is headed by gilt wings and has outswept feet. c_1870
SWEDISH ARMCHAIRS
Each one of this pair of Swedish Empire style., beech or fruitwood, painted open armchairs, has a rectangular, padded, and leaf-tip-bordered backrest, a spool turned
DANISH SAFE
DANISH ARMCHAIRS

Art Deco Glass
After a decline at the end of the Art Nouveau period, art glass became popular once again during the inter-war years. France was the leader in design and innovation, with the prolific Rene Lalique being the foremost glassmaker in the Art Deco style. Functional pieces were very often turned to purely decorative purposes, and Lalique’s moulded, opalescent, or frosted glass,
ranging from vases to architectural panels, spawned a gre many imitators. In the USA the Steuben Glass Works produce fine engraved stemware. Moulded glass was usually max produced and sometimes hand-finished; makers also used such techniques as enamelling and engraving to embellish glass -will the fashionable stylized motifs of the era.
Lalique, Daum, and Marinot Glass
European industrial decorative-glass manufacturers of the Art Deco period, most of which operated in France or Bohemia, were primarily influenced by the work of Rene Lalique ( 1860-1945). Many chose to copy his style and techniques, making clear or opalescent glass vessels and statuary with a frosted finish. The wealth of output provides a wide range of choice for collectors, and many focus on only one category, or even on one colour or motif. The present-day market is similarly led by Lalique prices, and most glass by other manufacturers, found throughout Europe, North America, and beyond, rarely rises above decorative value.
RENE LALIQUE Glass
Lalique began glassmaking in 1910, having already established a successful career as the leading jeweller of the Art Nouveau period, and in 1921 took over a large glassworks at Wingen-sur-Moder in Alsace to produce his designs. He was a prolific designer, and made an enormous variety of items, ranging from , and tablewares to clocks, lighting, and architectural panels. Most of his work was machine-made to a high standard. Lalique relied on metal moulds for casting or mould-blowing glass, and many items, particularly panels and larger vessels, show evidence of “chill marks”, or ripples, on the surface. Mould seams were often left, or only partially polished off. Certain objects, including vases, were made by Lalique himself (rather than by the workshop) using the cire perdue (lost-wax) technique. Since the mould has to be broken in order to retrieve the glass, each cire perdue cast is unique, and such items are highly collectable.
The majority of Lalique wares, and virtually all architectural panels, lighting, and table glass, are clear with a frosted or partially frosted surface. Opalescent glass was also used. Some vases were produced in colours, including amber, electric blue, and black, and these command
premium prices. Lalique created various forms of lighting, often in inventive shapes or containing geometric or figural decoration. Clear or opalescent light bowls are generally more desirable than those of a Yellow colour. Lalique designed several hundred perfume bottles, the rarest and best of which are as valuable as some coloured vases. Other categories of collectable interest include the range of 27 automobile-hood ornaments (car mascots), made from 1925 to 1932, boxes, inkwells, ashtrays, and letter seals.
THE INFLUENCE OF LALIQUE GLASS
Marius-Ernest Sabino (1878-1961) produced a wide range of vases, statuary, and lighting from c.1923 until the closure of his glassworks in 1939. Much of his work clearl displays the influence of Lalique; however, few examples are as finely executed as Lalique wares, nor were Sabino’s designs as imaginative. The best examples are in deep, opalescent glass of milky blue. Most popular are the highly stylized figures of women, while coloured vases, mostly black or smoky topaz, have a limited following. Sabino also
produced car mascots, often copies of designs by Lalique. Reproductions of Sabino’s wares using the Original moulds have been made since the 1960x.
Edmond Etling &- Cie (active 1920x-1930x) commissioned moulded opalescent glass, comparable in standards of design and manufacture to Sabino. Figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s, often in a pale-bluish tint, are especially collectable, with values rivalling Sabino and lesser Lalique. Other typical subjects were animals and ships, and some vases were also produced.
Other French glassmakers in Lalique style include the firm of Verlys, which operated in France and the USA; Andre Hunebelle, who specialized in lighting and frosted vases of geometric design; and the firm of Genet & Michon, makers of innovative lighting, frosted architectural panels, and vases. A large variety of frosted glass, geometric-patterned
glass geometric-patte lampshades, and hanging lights is reproduced today and can be found at reasonable cost.
DAUM GLASS
The factory operated by the Daum family in Nancy from 1875 to the present day produced some of the best and most distinctive French Art Deco glass of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Daum Specialized in artistic Art Nouveau overlay and etched glass until the
1920s, but introduced new lines in the Art Deco style before 1930, mostly under the direction of Paul Daum. The two most characteristic types of Art Deco Daum glass are the mottled and the acid-etched lines.
Mottled glass was usually of amber colour, often with golden metallic inclusions, and was used for vases and some lamps (which are far more desirable than vessels), blown into heavy metal armatures. The typical wrought-iron metalwork may be signed “Edgar Brandt” or attributable to the firm of Louis Majorelle 1859-1926) in Nancy. Daum glass of this type is relatively low in value as pieces tend to be cumbersome and a little sombre.
Vases, bowls, and table-lamps in heavy, thick-walled, vividly coloured glass with deeply acid-etched decoration are the most collectable Art Deco Daum. Colours include green, amethyst, amber, turquoise, and grey; monumental vases in “electric” colours, particularly bright blue and vibrant yellow, are highly sought after. Matt and polished surfaces were sometimes combined. Value is directly in proportion to the depth and complexity of the etched decoration; vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and are relatively inexpensive. Pale colours and a smoky grey arc also indicative of late origin (possibly post-World War II). Table-lamps are usually in thick, clear glass with a frosted or grainy surface texture and vertically etched grooves forming a geometric, abstract pattern. Lampshades are bullet-shaped (the more popular) or mushroom-shaped. Any authentic Daum etched table-lamp is of considerable value, particularly if it is of large scale. A few- shades of similar style were also made, but are generally less popular than lamps.
MAURICE MARINOT GLASS
Maurice Marinot (1882-1960) was a painter and glass artist who worked largely independently from c.1911. This glass was not mass-produced and is rarely found on the market; however, it is easily identifiable and widely collected, particularly in Europe. Marinot created mostly functional pieces such as vases, jugs, and bowls, often of abstract, sculptural form, and experimented with decorative techniques such as trapping bubbles or metal foil within thick, heavy walls of glass. Between c.1915 and 1918 Marinot made enamelled glass, which is somewhat less collectable than his later work and consists mainly of pale-coloured or bubbly vases and decanters painted with Art Deco-style flora, fauna, or figures in bright polychrome enamel. Later, internally decorated pieces are often in the form of stoppered bottles (the stopper may be a glass sphere), free-blown in thick, clear glass decorated with bubbling, inclusions, and streaks of colour, and sometimes deeply etched with geometric or figural patterns.
Rene Lalique
• TYPES before 1930: clear glass with partially frosted finish is most common; after 1930: almost all frosted and clear; some pale opalescent and pale yellow/amber colour; designs remained in production after Lalique’s death, when a new crystal glass N as used
• ALTERATIONS authentic but altered pieces of Lalique include vases with ground necks, perfume bottles with “married” stoppers, and opaque vases with “plugged” bases; all designs are recorded in a catalogue raisonne
• FAKES mostly inferior and of poor quality with signatures added; beware of post-war Lalique with the pre-war signature added
Marius-Ernst Sabino
• TYPES opalescent glass using typical Art Deco motifs
• REPRODUCTIONS since the 1960s old moulds have been used to make certain items; the opalescence is more intense than on the originals and map appear “oily-
• COLLECTING large, stylized female figures are the most popular
Etling & Cie
• TYPES most pieces are in opalescent glass, comparable in standard to Sabino
• COLLECTING figures of draped female nudes produced during the mid-1920s 920s are especially collectable; values rival Sabino and lesser Lalique; reproductions in frosted glass were made in France in the 1970s
Marks
Opalescent glass is marked with the name, usually with “France” or “Paris” added
Daum
• TYPES most characteristic are mottled and acid-etched
• FAKES these exist as similar but ulterior pieces, including table-lamps, that appear to be acid-etched hut can be identified as moulded on close inspection
• COLLECTING monumental vases in “electric” colours
with deeply acid-etched decoration are preferred; metal armatures are often cracked and should be inspected
carefully;depth, quality,and complexity of decoration Lire vital for determining value – vessels with shallow, sparse decoration tend to be of later origin and have little value; pale colours and a smoky grey are indicative of later origin (possibly post-World War II)
Maurice Marinot
• TYPES handmade, small-scale items with heavy, thick-walled glass arc most typical; much of Marinot’s work is internally decorated or enamelled
• COLLECTING work is rare and consequently expensive
Marks
All pieces are engraved with the Marinot signature
Other French makers
ARGY-ROUSSEAU AND DECORCHEMONT
The style of the pate-de-verre (glass paste) specialists Gabriel Argy-Rousseau (1885-1953) and Francois-Emile Decorchemont (1880-1971) evolved from the Art Nouveau to the Art Deco during the 1920s. Argy-Rousseau produced vases decorated with stylized figures or geometric patterns in rich colours, together with table-lamps (the most valuable of all Art Deco pate-de-verre), plaques, and some translucent pate-de-cristal vessels. Popular Argy-Rousseau Vases were produced in large numbers, each one being hand-finished; motifs included Egyptian and mythological subjects. The output of Decorchemont, whose work is less collectable than that of Argy-Rousseau, is mainly in pate-de-cristal, often of bluish tone. Small vessels of Neo-classical form are typical. External decoration is subtle, and may be in the form of geometric engraving.
GOUPY AND HEILIGENSTEIN
Working from his Paris studio between 1918 and c.1936, Marcel Goupy (1886-1954) designed glass and ceramics sold mostly through the gallery of Georges Rouard in Paris. Goupy glass includes thin-walled vases, decanters, and goblets in clear or pale monochrome glass, painted with stylized flora, fauna, or figural decoration in semi-matt polychrome enamels. Auguste-Claude Heiligenstein (1891-1976) was an assistant to Goupy at Rouard from 1919 until 1926; he produced enamelled glass for several firms and independent commissions until the mid-1930s. Heiligenstein specialized in figural decoration, often featuring Neo-classical women in translucent enamels. Colours are naturalistic, often predominantly bluish and sometimes edged in gilt. Forms include vases, decanters, and pendants.
Other French Art Deco glass artists who used enamel decoration include Andre Delatte, who worked near Nancy in the 1920s and made mostly vases in opaque, bright colours. In his best pieces the decoration combines etching overlay with polychrome enamel painting. The firm of Muller Freres (est. 1895) in Luneville made speckled glass comparable to Daum c.1930, which may be fixed with metal armatures. The most valuable glass of this type was used for a series of lamps in the form of animals.
LESSER-KNOWN MAKERS
French Art Deco glass by small or lesser-known makers is widely available and varies greatly in quality. The unique, deeply acid-etched sculptural work of Aristide Colotte (1885-1959) in clear crystal ranks among the highest achievements in Art Deco decorative glass, but not widely collected. Similarly, the strikingly Modernists geometric glass desk items designed by Jean Luce (1895-1964) arc not greatly sought after, despite the practicality. Luce also designed glass for the ocean liners of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique
(C.G.T.). Other Art Deco glass includes the
popular range of vases, lamps, and other wares
produced by Charles Schneider (1881-1953) from
c.1918 until the early 1930s. Most is of mottled.
bubbly glass mould-blown into heavily walled
vases and bowls. Vessels of this type, which may have applied feet or handles of contrasting colour, are common and of relatively little value. Schneider produced vases and a few table-lamps as “Lc Verre Francais”, typically in overlay glass etched with Art Deco decoration.
Argy-Rousseau and Decorchement
• WARES before c.1920: mostly small, Art Nouveau pieces, including jewellery and ashtrays; after c. 1920: larger items, including vases, in a more symmetrical style
• CONVERSIONS attention should be paid to large vases,
which may have been drilled for lamp attachments
• RESTORATION this may be visible on heavy, opaque pieces through transmitted light, and reduces value
• COLLECTING rich, deep colours and well-defined decoration are most desirable; heavier vases are popular
Goupy and Heiligenstein
• DECORATION polychrome enamelling
• COLLECTING Goupy: large-scale works and figural work are his most collectable pieces
Marks
Goupy: enamel or gilt script in the design or on underside of foot; Heiligenstein: most have an enamel or gilt signature, dates, and title of decoration
Lesser-known makers
• COLLECTING Luce: desk items arc popular with Art Deco collectors; Schneider: mould-blown vessels are common and of relatively little value; large pieces, geometric forms, lamps, and pieces with applied elements are the more valuable Schneider wares

Most American glass made during the inter-war years was in traditional style and of press-moulded manufacture, but inexpensive interpretations of French glass, particularly that of Rene Lalique (1860-1945), were popular during the early 1930x. American glass of this period is rarely found outside the USA, as it was not exported; a thriving network of American-glass collectors exists, but there is virtually no interest in this type of Art Deco glass elsewhere in the world.
STEUBEN GLASS
Steuben Glassworks (est. 1903) was founded in Corning, New York, by the Englishman Frederick Carder (1864-1963). Steuben is the most prestigious and highly regarded American glassmaker, partly owing to its elegant and distinctive work in the Art Deco style.
Before 1933 Carder designed much of Steuben’s ware himself; after that date most Steuben Art Deco glass was designed by John Monteith Gates (6.1905) or
Sidney Waugh (1904-63), who worked almost exclusively in clear crystal. Steuben glass is not Modernist or avant-garde; vase forms are typically restrained, often of Neo-classical or Chinese inspiration. Engraved decoration is impressive, comparable to that of contemporary glass made by the Swedish firm of Orrefors (est. 1898). Much of the engraving is figural, featuring slender forms with subtle, geometric stylization. During the late 1930s and 1940s Steuben also produced a range of heavy, cast, clear crystal animals, some in geometric Art Deco designs, for use as bookends and paperweights; these are highly collectable today. Decanters, often with air-trapped stoppers, are also common.
Stemware, bar items, and a few elegant vases designed for Steuben by the leading industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague ( 1883-1960) in the early 1930s are considered among the most innovative American Art Deco glass. Teague’s slender, elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are comparable in value to the best Lalique pieces.
VERLYS AND CACIQUE-STYLE GLASS
The trademark “Verlys” derives from “Venetic d’Andelys”, a French glassworks (est. 1920) in Les Andelys, Lure, founded by the American Holophane Glass Co. However, from c.1933 until 1955 most decorative Verlys wares were made in the USA, and pieces are often found on the market there today. Verlys ware is growing in popularity in the USA and also has some market in Europe. Typical of the factory’s output arc press-moulded vases and bowls, mostly with symmetrical patterns evocative of Lalique, in deep-bluish Opalescent glass. Smoky-grey, blue, and pink are rare and generally less popular; even the best designs have values comparable only to those of the plainest Lalique. From 1926 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. of
Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, produced an inexpensive range of mould-blown vases and some figural plates in the style of Lalique under the direction of Reuben Haley. Production continued on the same site – trading as the Phoenix Glassworks – until the 1940s, under Reuben’s son, Kenneth Haley.
“RUBA RHOMBIC” AND DEPRESSION GLASS Between 1928 and 1933 the Consolidated Lamp & Glass Co. produced a stylish line of vases and table glass called “Ruba Rhombic”. Examples are highly collectable, although the line was relatively inexpensive when first produced. Liqueur sets and small vases in smoky grey are most common. Collectors focus on vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black. It is estimated that fewer than 1,500 pieces exist today.
Ruba Rhombic is the finest of the so-called “Depression” glass that was produced by scores of regional firms, and consisted mostly of heavily moulded kitchen- or tableware in pale monochrome, sometimes in the Art Deco style. Depression glass is collectable in the USA but remains very affordable.
Steuben Glassworks
• FORMS Neo-classical or Chinese-style vases, clear crystal animals,decanters with air-trapped stoppers; Art Deco stemware, vases, and barware by Teague
• ORNAMENT engraved, stylized figures or fauna
• COLLECTING elegant Art Deco cocktail and wineglasses are most valuable
Verlys
• FORMS press-moulded vases and bowls, with Lalique style symmetrical patterns
• COLLECTING becoming increasingly popular; opalescent colours are more desirable than smoky grey, blue, or pink
Phoenix Glassworks
• STYLE some copies of, or attempts to emulate, Lalique are found, but they can be distinguished by their light weight, poor definition, poorly finished rims, sugary frosted texture, and use of matt, pastel staining, sometimes in two colours
• COLLECTING as yet of no significant value

Ruba Rhombic glass
• FORMS angular, heavily moulded vases and tableware, mostly= pale monochrome
• COLLECTING angular “Ruba Rhombic” pieces in vibrant or rare colours such as green, yellow, lavender, and black are most desirable

Art DecoCeramics
In the 1920s and 1930s the Art Deco style filtered through into the designs of commercial ceramics manufacturers throughout Europe. Factories such as Sevres in France employed top designers to create fashionable pieces with such typical Art Deco motifs as stylized flowers, plants, female nudes, and exotic animals in bold colours. Commercially produced pieces survive
in larger numbers than those of artist-potters and are becomin with Geometric shapes an increasingly popular with collectors.
clean, functional forms were a legacy of the Bauhaus 1 Germany, being eminently suitable for mass production. British ceramics remained essentially traditional, but bold, bright Art Deco designs were produced by Clarice Cliff.
FRENCH ART POTTERY
Immediately prior to and following World War I, many potters continued to work in the tradition of the reform movements of the 19th century, in which the artisan was responsible for all phases of the production of his or her work. Most of these artist-potters were based in France and explored a wide variety of techniques, including
painting, sgraffito and crackle glazing. Many of them employed the typical Art Deco motifs of stylized female figures and animals, often representing episodes from Classical myths, or geometric forms.
An influential forerunner of the artist-potters was Andre Metthey (1871-1921), who produced richly coloured faience and stoneware vases with decoration designed by such well-known avant-garde artists as Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and Edouard Vuillard. After World War I Metthey turned to painting his wares with pure geometric motifs of his own design, as well as stylized flowers, plants, and Classical figures in bright colours, usually in friezes or set in medallions.
In the early 20th century many French potters were strongly influenced by Oriental ceramics. Among these was Raoul Lachenal (1855–c.1930), who produced simple, symmetrical stonewares inspired by Oriental forms and painted with stylized floral or geometric patterns in strong, plain colours. Henri Simmen (18801969) was greatly interested in French peasant pottery, and worked with salt and flambe glazes before World War I. After the war he produced handmade stonewares, using natural products to create rich glazes. Simmen’s wares were sometimes incised with symmetrically placed
geometric motifs; ivory, precious wood, or horn lids, finials, and stands were carved by his Japanese wife, O’Kin Simmen. The early designs of Emile Decoeur (18761953) were in the Art Nouveau style, but in the 1920s and 1930s he rejected elaborate surface decoration in favour of pure, symmetrical, Oriental-style forms with a single, brilliantly coloured glaze.
One of the best-known figures in Art Deco French ceramics was Rene Buthaud (1886-1987), whose work is rare and highly collectable. In the mid-1920s he produced simple, bulbous vases and bowls with painted, crackle-glazed, or incised decoration, generally in brown tones. His designs of linear, stylized female figures were influenced by the paintings of Jean Dupas and by African art. Buthaud was among the artists who designed wares for Primavera, the design studio of the Printemps department store in Paris. The Longwy factory also produced wares for Primavera, including pieces with crackle-glazed grounds, which were used as a base for painted decoration.
The painter Jean Mayodon (1893-1967) turned to working in ceramics in 1912 but did not exhibit his pieces until after the war. His vases, bowls, and plates are painted in rich colours and decorated with Classical figures. As well as small decorative pieces, Mayodon produced panels and tiles, some of which were used for the French ocean liners of the 1930s. The French painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) collaborated with the Catalan potter Josep Llorens Artigas (1892-1980) on ceramic vases, fountains, and planters decorated with Duty’s trademark motifs of dancers, flowers, and nymphs.
COMMERCIAL WARES
Some of the highest-quality Art Deco ceramics were produced at Sevres from 1920, when the factory came under the direction of George Lechevallier-Chevignard. At the 1925 Paris Exhibition, Sevres displayed vases and tablewares with decorations designed by a number of eminent contemporary artists, including Suzanne Lalique (b.1899), daughter of the jeweller and glassmaker Rene Lalique 1860-1945), Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann
933), and the painter Jean Dupas (1882-1964). These wares were traditional in form but were elaborately embellished with Art Deco motifs. The restrained use of gilding to highlight or outline motifs is also a familiar feature of Sevres wares.
The Limoges firm of Theodore Haviland & Cie (est. 1-9–) also employed Suzanne Lalique and Duty and consequently produced pieces similar to those of Sevres. Lalique designed plates depicting grapes and vines in a palette of black, silver, and green, while Dufy’s wares featured foliage and floral motifs in bright colours. Tableware for Haviland by the glass designer Jean Luce 1895-1964) is characterized by gold-and-platinum stylized clouds, angular sunbursts, and zigzags.
In the 1920s and 1930s the design studios of Parisian department stores produced a wide variety of Art Deco wares for the mass market. La Maitrise, the studio of Galeries es Lafayette, produced a range of household wares manufactured in Belgium. The Compagnie des Arts Francais (est. 1919) produced a variety of utilitarian and decorative wares in an architectonic style, as well as tablewares such as tureens and vegetable dishes with heavy scrolls and floral motifs.
The most important manufacturer of Belgian Art Deco ceramics was the firm of Keramis, owned by Boch Freres, in La Louvriere. Its artistic director from 1907
was Charles Catteau (1880-1966), who designed simple, ovoid-shaped vases, with thickly applied glazes on an often ivory, crackle-glazed background. Like Lachenal, Catteau sometimes used patterns imitating cloisonne enamel, although in the 1920s and 1930s his favoured forms of decoration included Such animals as leaping gazelles and stylized pendant flowers and plants.
In Italy the architect Gio Ponti (18911979) created a range of wares between 1923 and 1930 for the porcelain manufacturers Richard-Ginori (est. 1896) in Doccia. His range included tableware, vases, and urns, which were painted with strongly stylized geometric patterns, architectural forms,
figures, or drapery.
FIGURES
Most French figurative ceramics reflect the general trend for stylized forms. Among the earliest Art Deco examples are the porcelain tea- and coffee-sets (1916-17) designed by the Swiss sculptor Edouard Marcel Sandoz (1881-1971) for Haviland. The teapots, creamers, and other items are modelled as formalized, angular animals and birds. The Parisian firm of Robj produced useful wares in the form of brightly coloured, almost toylike figures in national dress or representing different professions.
From 1928 the Italian firm of Lenci (est. 1919) in Turin produced earthenware and porcelain figures, mainly of women, either nude or in contemporary dress. These figures are more naturalistic than most French examples and are distinguished by elongated limbs, bright-yellow hair, and a combination of matt and glossy glazes. Most Lenci designers are anonymous.
French art pottery
• DECORATION sgraffito, painting, and crackle glazing
• INSPIRATION Classical and Oriental wares
Marks
Buthaud: painted “R. Buthaud”, or painted or incised monogram “RB”
Primavera: Dufy/Artigas: each piece w0.V
should be individually numbered (1-110) C)
Sevres
• STYLE conventional forms based on 18th-century designs are typically decorated with stylized leaves and flowers, and geometric patterns; gilding is common
• COLLECTING pieces are high quality so are relatively expensive even though mass-produced
Keramis/Boch Freres
• FORMS simple, ovoid shapes
• DECORATION patterns imitating cloisonne enamel; stylized flowers, plants, or animals; colours: turquoise, also blue, black, green, and brown
France
• FORMS useful wares such as tea- and coffee-services and decanters, as well as decorative pieces, made in the form of stylized animals, birds, or human figures
Lenci
• FORMS figures of women, nude or in stylish modern dress, often wearing hats; mostly single subjects
• GLAZES matt often combined with shiny finish
• COLLECTING sophisticated pieces most sought after
COMMERCIAL WARES
In Germany, the Bauhaus (est. 1919) opened a ceramics workshop at Dornburg near Weimar, but ceramics were abandoned when the school moved to Dessau in 1925. However, the pure, functional forms used by Bauhaus designers did have some influence on mass-produced ceramics. In 1930, at the State Porcelain Factory in Berlin, Marguerite Friedlander-Wildenhaim (1896-1985), a former Bauhaus student, created the simple, geometric designs of the “Halle” service. Geometric shapes, with soft, rounded contours, were also used by Dr Hermann Gretsch for his designs for the “Arzberg 1382″ service of 1931, which was manufactured by the Carl Schumann factory in Arzberg.
Among the factory’s most collectable products today are its terracotta wall masks. These elongated, highly stylized female faces are hand-painted in bold colours, typically red, yellow, green, and black, and usually have
brightly coloured hair in ringlets. The firm also had a subsidiary in Paris, which at the 1925 exhibition displayed Cubist-inspired, angular statuettes with simplified features. In the late 1930s the British firm of Myott, Son & Co. Ltd produced Goldscheider figures. These pieces, clearly marked with their origin, are less collectable than Goldscheider figures made in Austria.
In Germany, fine-quality, detailed, naturalistic porcelain figures of dancers in colourful costumes, women in modern dress, and animals were produced by the firm of Rosenthal (est. 1879) in Selb. However, some of its most distinctive figures of the late 1920s and 1930s are very different in style; modelled by the artist Gerhard Schliepstein (b.1886) they depict svelte, elongated, and stylized women and greyhounds in pure-white porcelain. The Art Deco taste for the exotic was reflected in the figures of snake-charmers, Spanish dancers, and belly-dancers made by the Dux porcelain factory in Bohemia in the 1920s and 1930s.
Among the most distinctive Art Deco ceramics are those designed by Wilhelm Kage (1889-1950), artistic director of the Gustavsberg porcelain works in Sweden. His “Argenta” range of hand-thrown or moulded green-glazed vases, bowls, plates, and boxes (1929-52) is inset with chased silver in typically Art Deco motifs of mermaids, nude female figures, and flowers. Such wares are becoming more popular with collectors but are still relatively inexpensive.
FIGURES
Along with tableware, figures are among the most widely collected Art Deco ceramics today. While some factories continued to produce figures of traditional subjects, such as characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte, many Art Deco figures represent women, either nude or in contemporary dress. Some are accompanied by elegant greyhounds or borzois. Stylized human, animal, or bird figures and wall masks, influenced by contemporary Cubist abstract sculpture, were also popular during this period.
During the 1920s and 1930s the Vienna firm of Goldscheider (1885-1954) was one of the few Austrian producers of earthenware and porcelain in the Modern style. Figures made by Goldscheider include dancing couples in contemporary dress, ballerinas, and Pierrettes from the commedia dell’arte. Colours are typically rich and contrasting, and costumes are exotic.
German commercial waresSTYLE
• , usually influenced by the Bauhaus designs; simple, geometric shapes are typical, often with soft, round contours
Gustaysberg porcelain works
• STYLE Argenta tablewares, vases, and boxes with green-glazed grounds, inset with chased silver motifs; some with diaper-patterned or floral borders
• COLLECTING Argenta wares are increasingly collectable; hand-thrown pieces are more heavily moulded
Marks
Printed in black or gold ( 1910-40) 19
Goldscheider
• FORMS figures of couples in modern dress, dancers, and stylized wall masks
• COLOURS wall masks are painted in bright tones of red, yellow, green, and black
• CONDITION masks are prone to chipping as they are made of earthenware; paint may also be worn
American Art Deco ceramics were mainly inspired by European design, and today many collectors in the USA actually prefer French Art Deco porcelain or pottery to American-made pieces.
COMMERCIAL CERAMICS
Cleveland, Ohio, was the centre for progressive American ceramics during the inter-war years, owing to the influence of Julius Mihalik, a Viennese professor at the Cleveland Institute of Arts and follower of the Wiener Werkstatte. Several students and independent designers worked for the Cowan Pottery, founded outside Cleveland in 1913 by Reginald Guy Cowan 3. 19 30). Cowan designed most of the pottery’s early pieces himself; these consist mainly of inexpensive, slip-cast earthenware figures and figural “flower frogs” with matt monochrome glazes. The work of independent designers, generally made after 1927 for the Cowan Pottery Studio, was often issued in limited editions, and is most collectable. Some pieces show a distinctly Austrian influence, while others, particularly the work of Paul A “Jazz” punchbowl by Victor Schreckengost for the Cowan Pottery Studio
-,-is well-known design depicts scenes of New York City on New Year’s
and is glazed in “Egyptian Blue”. Each piece in the rare limited edition of 50 is slightly different A commercial, mass-produced edition also exists. (1931; ht 20cm18in; value of limited-edition bowl K)
Manship (1885-1966), are sculptural. The designs of Waylande Gregory (1905-71), who worked at Cowan from 1928 and later at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, are often Neo-classical in inspiration.
A famous allegorical image, “Radio”, personifies the medium as a woman depicted in the Classical style, holding a lightning bolt.
The Rookwood Pottery (est. 1880) of Cincinnati, Ohio, produced an extensive range of Art Deco ceramics, mostly figures, bookends, and paperweights, in monochrome glazes. The Art Deco wares of the Roseville Pottery, in Zanesville, Ohio, are generally considered inferior to those of Rookwood, but such lines as “Futura”, introduced in 1928, are lively and attractive, which
makes them of greater interest to collectors. Most common in this line are well-marked vases featuring angular handles or “skyscraper” stepping.
In 1936 Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880-1942) introduced the “Fiesta” line for the Homer Laughlin China Co. (est. 1877) in East Liverpool, Ohio. This was a popular kitchenware in vibrant colours. Collectors are widespread, and Fiesta is sold at special auctions throughout North America. Comparable to Fiesta ware are the monochrome teapots and dinnerware in streamlined style made at the Hall China Co. (est. 1903) in East Liverpool; like the Fiesta range, these have been authentically reproduced.
STUDIO POTTERY
Studio potters active in the inter-war years in the USA include Susi Singer (1895-1949) and Vally Wieseltheir (1895-1945), who were both potters at the Wiener Werks6tte before emigrating in 1932. Typical . pica] of their work are hand-modelled earthenware figures, most of which are clearly signed. Wieseltheir produced designs for General Ceramics in New York. From 1923 to the early 1930s the designer Wilhelm Hunt Diederich (1884-1953) made a limited amount of pottery, rare and now highly sought after, at his studios in Woodstock, New York. Other potters of note include Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1971), Carl Walters, and Maija Grotell.
Cowan Pottery
• COLLECTING Cowan Pottery Studio is the most collectable commercial ware; pieces by independent designers after 1927 (especially limited-edition “Jazz” bowls) are more collectable than early
pieces
Marks
Most pieces are impressed or printed with marks showing artist’s name or monogram
Other commercial ceramics
• ROOKWOOD Art Deco pieces are less collectable and valuable than pre-1914 pieces, although colourful, abstract-patterned vases are popular with collectors
• ROSEVILLE more collectable than Rookwood; “Futura” is most popular; beware of modern forgeries, which arc difficult to distinguish from originals
• FIESTA made until 1972 and reintroduced in 1986; widely collected in USA; early pieces include red (most desirable), blue, yellow, green, and ivory (least popular); most new colours are pastel; modern versions are widely available
Studio pottery
• TYPES various pieces, including polychrome, hand-modelled earthenware figures, and platters hand-painted with stylized figures and animals
• VALUE pieces by independent studio potters are higher in value than mass-produced ceramics
• COLLECTING wares arc generally signed by the artist; work by Hunt Diederich is rare and very collectable
Art Deco had little immediate impact on the forms of commercial British ceramics; most firms simply added the newly fashionable, brightly coloured, geometric, and abstract designs to existing shapes. By the late 1920s the success of such innovative designers as Clarice Cliff (1899-1972) encouraged others to develop original shapes alongside traditional ranges, and by the 1930s the influence of Modernism was evident in the increasingly functional and geometric forms of tableware, minimally decorated in neutral matt glazes. A whimsical trend in ceramics continued in the range of popular ornaments, from Wedgwood’s sculptural animal designs to porcelain figures embellishing such items as dressing-table wares.
CLARICE CLIFF
British Art Deco ceramics are virtually synonymous with Cliff. In 1916 she joined the firm of A.J. Wilkinson Ltd (est. 1896), near Burslem, Staffordshire. In 1920 the firm acquired the nearby Newport Pottery and its range of old-fashioned white wares, and, recognizing Cliff’s talent, set her up in a studio there. Cliff and her team of decorators hand-painted biscuit-fired tablewares with brightly coloured enamels over a distinctive ivory-coloured glaze, known as “honey” glaze. In January 1928 the “Bizarre” range of inexpensive and cheerful pottery for or everyday use was launched; by October of the same year the range had become hugely successful. Cliff went on to design more than 500 shapes, including the “Conical”, “Bonjour”, and “Stamford” ranges, and 2,000 patterns, including “Inspiration” (now rare and desirable), “Applique”, “Tennis”, “Sunray”, “Solitude”, and “Mountain”. As well as traditional shapes, she designed many futuristic or otherwise innovative forms,
such as beehive-shaped honey-pots, cone-shaped sugar-sifters, and highly stylized, geometric versions of conventional items. The majority of her output was tablewares, but she also produced a range of novelty wares, among the most collectable being figures and the newly fashionable wall masks, which usually depicted the subject face-on and featured a floral headdress. Cliff also commissioned designs from other artists, among them Laura Knight ( 1877-1970), who produced the now highly collectable “Circus” series.
SUSIE COOPER
Although somewhat overshadowed by Cliff’s bright, flamboyant designs, Susie Cooper (1902-95) designed an equally distinctive and now sought-after range of shapes (including “Kestrel”,
“Curlew”, “Wren”, “Jay”,
“Falcon”, and “Spiral”) and
patterns (including “Dresden
Spray”, “Tadpoles”, “Scarlet
runner beans”, “Nosegay” “Polka
dots”, and “Cromer”). In 1922 she
undertook a work placement with
A.E. Gray & Co. Ltd (1912-61) in
Hanley, Staffordshire, and her success
in designing surface patterns in lustre
pigments and enamel colours for bought-in
white wares was such that she was given her
own mark. By 1929 she had established a ceramic decoration company at George Street Pottery, Tunstall, and by 1932 was designing her own shapes; these were produced at Wood & Sons, in Burslem, Staffordshire, where Cooper had her own production unit, Crown Works. Most sought after are her tablewares in traditional, rounded shapes such as “Kestrel”, “Curlew”, and “Wren”. Other early and desirable ranges include the more brightly coloured, abstract, geometric designs such as the banded patterns, polka dots, and exclamation marks produced for the large retail outlets of the John Lewis Partnership in the early 1930s. Her hand-painted designs were carefully adapted for transfer-printing, and the two methods of decoration are virtually indistinguishable and equally collectable. After World War II Cooper produced light, translucent, bone-china teawares made in Longton and sent to Burslem for decoration; these are less collectable.
WEDGWOOD AND DOULTON
The commercial giants Wedgwood (est. 1759), in Burslem, Staffordshire, and Doulton & Co. (est. 1815), in London, both produced ranges of functional tablewares and purely decorative Art Deco pieces. For Wedgwood the Modernist architect Keith Murray (1892-1981) designed a range of simple, geometric forms, including vases and bowls, with lathe-turned decoration and semi-matt glazes, often in soft grey, green, and ivory white. In complete contrast to Murray’s plain, functional designs were Wedgwood’s more conventional, intricately decorated lustrewares, the most popular and expensive of which was the “Fairyland” series.
Although the imagery on the “Fairyland” pieces bears no resemblance to that usually associated with Art Deco, the original shapes and bright colours are typical of the period, and the success of Wedgwood’s lustrewares inspired other manufacturers to produce more strictly Art Deco lustre ranges. From 1926 the modeller and sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80) designed a range of 14 stylized Art Deco earthenware animals and birds for Wedgwood in black basalt, cream, celadon, and tan glazes; these pieces proved popular and were produced well into the 1950s.
Doulton produced a range of Art Deco tableware –such as the “Dubarry” dinner service – but it is the company’s decorative bone-china figures of the 1920s and 1930s, many designed by Lesley Harradine (1887-1965), that are particularly collectable
toda.
These figures, most of which are full length, usually depict young, fair-skinned women in informal poses, and as such are celebrations of women’s increasing freedom and independence.
OTHER FACTORIES
The Art Deco wares produced by the Shelley Pottery Ltd (1872-1966; originally Wileman & Co.; trading as Foley 1892-1925, and as Shelley from 1925) owe their continuing popularity at least in part to the talented designers employed by the company in the 1920s and 1930s. These include the illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964), who in 1926 introduced a range of charming nursery wares. In 1930 Eric Slater (1).1902) introduced two new, Modernist forms – “Vogue” and “Mode” – in clean, streamlined, architectural shapes that were perfectly suited to Shelley’s fine bone china. However, more successful was the “Eve” range of
tablewares, introduced c.1932, combining practicality with stylish, geometric design; it featured cup rims narrowed to prevent heat loss, and
triangular handles pierced, rather than
solid, for easier handling.
The Poole Pottery in Dorset (est. 1873
as Carter & Co.; trading as Carter, Stabler
& Adams from 1921, and from 1963 as
Poole Pottery, the name now also used to
describe early wares) produced collectable
Art Deco tablewares during the 1930s. Designs include “Studland”, which has elaborate angular handles combined with a
plain body of mottled green or blue, or the fashionable leaf and floral pattern; “Picotee” and “Everest” in plain colours with solid diamond-shaped handles, and rounded and ribbed shapes respectively; and “Streamline”, which as the name suggests was influenced by the American streamlined style.
The Carlton Works at Stoke-on-Trent (est. 1890; from 1958 Carltonware Ltd) produced a distinctive range of ceramics during this period. Rare and highly sought after are their geometric-shaped vases, hand-painted in bright contrasting colours. The success of Wedgwood’s lustrewares inspired Carlton to produce a range of richly coloured pieces, featuring enamelled decoration
on a dark glaze and a pearlized effect on the interior. Most of the company’s production took the form of moulded tableware, with leaf-moulded dishes being especially common.
Clarice Cliff
• DESIGNS strong geometric forms in bold, bright colours; some traditional shapes
• BEWARE fakes proliferate: check for washed-out colour,
poor-quality painting, and an uneven or murky glaze
• COLLECING increasingly rare and expensive; pieces are collected by pattern or type; desirability is determined by pattern, shape, and condition; wall masks and “Age of Jazz” figures are highly sought after
Marks
Most pieces marked, with the pattern
name alongside the signature, and a 00″‘ stamped factory mark
Susie Cooper
• DESIGNS traditional, rounded forms; tea-sets usually in autumnal colours
• COLLECTING pre-1939 wares are most collectable; archive catalogues help to distinguish between pre-and post-war issues of the same designs; hand-painted, transfer-printed or lithographed designs
arc all equally collectable
Marks
Printed in brown on carthcnwares from c.1932
Major manufacturers
• DESIGNS Murray for Wedgwood: geometric, often ribbed pieces; Doulton figures: young women, typically bathing or dancing; Shelley: architectural forms with conical bodies and solid, triangular handles; Poole: streamlined shapes produced in combinations of subdued, two-colour glazes
• DECORATION Carlton: flowers, butterflies, chinoiserie, and silver-lustre lightning motifs are typical
• COLLECTING a wide range of tablewares is available; porcelain figures command premium prices;
Wedgwood: designs by Murray and Skeaping are highly sought after, particularly Murray’s lathe-turned wares, “Annular” teawares, and the “Bournvita” drinking set; Shelley: designs by Slater are highly desirable; Carlton: leaf-moulded forms are abundant but not popular with collectors
Marks
Poole Pottery: almost all pieces are impressed with this mark or the entwined initials “CSA” and will include the decorator’s monogram; few pieces are dated

The late 1920s saw the emergence of a Modern movement” of innovative American furniture designers. Inspired by European immigrants, including several key members of the Bauhaus, they explored new materials such as tubular metal. American Modernism was relatively small-scale, but it set the stage for a generation of industrial designers who from the mid-1930s reshaped interiors with enormous flair.
American Art Deco furniture falls into three broad categories: commercial copies of formal French pieces in exotic wood veneers and inlay; innovative and avant-garde work, which was never produced in large quantities and is scarce today; and industrially produced, mostly metallic and laminated wood furniture, based loosely on Bauhaus concepts. Produced from the 1930s until after World War II, this third category is much collected today.
PAUL T. FRANKL
Frankl (1886-1958), an Austrian architect and engineer, emigrated to the USA at the outbreak of World War I. He began designing and manufacturing furniture in New York City c.1920, working in a traditional European formal style. By the mid-1920s he was designing economical, compact, practical, modular furniture, inspired in part by the architect–designers Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965). The best Frankl furniture (1925–c.1930), produced Linder the tradename “Skyscraper”, was inspired by the evolving New York skyline. Bookcases and tall cabinetry of stepped, rectilinear form are typical, often with a black, red, or pale-green lacquer finish with silver-leaf edging. Natural woods, including California redwood and oak, were also used, with a red, black, or silver trim.

Dressing tables, desks, and mirrors arc also found, often with mirrored-glass tops or shelving and Bakelite drawer-pulls, which suggest a slightly later date. Bookcase cabinets usually have simple wooden pulls. Skyscraper furniture was designed to be economical, and standards of cabinetry are basic.
During the inter-war years Oriental interiors were extremely fashionable in the USA, and Frankl produced lacquered furniture such as dining-chairs, cocktail bars, dressing-tables, and small tables, usually in black, pale green, or red with gold- or silver-leaf details, sometimes with brass fittings. This furniture is less popular than the Skyscraper range, because collectors prefer pure, Modernist lines, particularly if they evoke the works of the Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian, who was
also inspired by mid-1920s New
York architecture.
DONALD DESKEY
The designer Donald Deskey
(1894-1989) collaborated with Frankl during the late 1920s,
designing screens and large
cabinetry in lacquered and metallic-leaf finish with vivid, jazzy
decoration featuring zigzags. He also produced more mainstream designs for numerous other American manufacturers, working mostly in hardwood veneers. He is best known as the principal interior designer for New York’s Radio City Music Hall,
which preserves many of his pieces in situ. Pieces with Radio City provenance occasionally appear on the market and are eagerly sought.
Between 1927 and 1931 Deskey worked in partnership with Phillip Vollmer, designing furniture in Bauhaus taste, made of metal and glass, sometimes together with Bakelite and cork. Most of Deskey’s work is unsigned, but his designs are well recorded in contemporary catalogues, and many specialist dealers in the USA recognize them.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is one of the best-known and most influential American architects and designers. Any designs attributed to him command a premium, particularly the Modernist oak creations from the first decade of the 20th century. However, his later post-war commercial furniture, mostly oak and maple tables and low, horizontal seating, is currently of little more than decorative value.
Most of Wright’s work cannot be considered Art Deco, but some of his furniture of the inter-war years appeals to Art Deco enthusiasts. The best examples were designed for Wright’s residential buildings, and are therefore extremely scarce. Pieces for commercial interiors were made in larger numbers and are more common today. Enamelled metal furniture, such as that made for Wright’s S.C. Johnson Administration Building (Wisconsin) in 1937, and several types of wooden chair are relatively common on the market.

THE CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
In 1925 the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (18731950) began work on the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan. In 1932 he became president and art director of the academy, serving there until his death. The building retains many of the original furnishings that he designed.
In most of Saarinen’s designs a formal, Scandinavian influence is evident in the elegant lines and relatively small scale, although some are comparable to the more organic style of the Wiener WerkstRte designer Dagobert Peche (1887-1923). Saarinen preferred rich wood veneers and natural materials, which he sometimes Used in combination with steel or polished metal.
The Cranbrook Academy, like the German Bauhaus school, is best known for its influential alumni. The most celebrated Cranbrook graduates from the 1930s are Florence Knoll (b.1917), whose name appears on much American Modernist furniture made under her direction; Charles Eames (1907-78), who designed laminated wood, leather, and fibreglass furniture for the Herman Miller Co. and others from the late 1930s; and Eero Saarinen (1910-61), Eliel Saarinen’s son, who collaborated with Eames as well as pursuing an independent career as both an architect and a furniture designer. Popular designs were produced over several decades (some are still made); earlier pieces can be identified by tags and generally higher-quality craftsmanship, as well as by wear and tear. Followers of Eames whose work is of interest to collectors include Gilbert Rohde (1894-1944), who designed Bauhaus-influenced tubular steel furniture produced by the Herman Miller Co., and George Nelson (1907-86).
OTHER AMERICAN ART DECO FURNITURE During the 1930s, American Modernism took root throughout the USA, partly because so economical a style of design was appropriate to a country in the grip of the Depression. Leading designers include Russel Wright (1904-76), Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960), and Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), who all specialized in industrial-style commercial products and lighting, using new materials such as aluminium, chrome, and plastic. Karl Emmanuel Martin (”Ke”) Weber ,1889-1963) studied under Bruno
Paul in Berlin before moving to California in 1914. He designed both individually commissioned and mass-produced furniture, typically in laminated wood, chromed metal, and sprung steel.
The architect Eugene Schoen 1880-1957) designed elegant furniture in Modernist materials including glass and nickel. Examples of tubular steel furniture influenced by the
Bauhaus include -pieces designed by Wolfgang Hoffman (1900-69), son of the famous Austrian designer Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), during the 1930s. Prestigious firms included John Widdicomb, Johnson Furniture, and Barker Brothers Furniture Co., all in Los Angeles, and S. Karpen of Chicago, all of which employed leading designers.

Paul T. Frankl
•    COLLECTING rarely found outside New York City; Oriental style is less popular than Skyscraper; collectors prefer signed pieces in unrestored condition; surface restoration is common as decoration is easily worn
Marks
Authentic Skyscraper pieces are stamped “SKYSCRAPER FURNITURE, Frank) Galleries, 4 East 48th Street, New York”
Donald Deskey
•    VALUE interesting provenance, such as Radio City Music Hall, adds greatly to value
•    COLLECTING Deskey-Vollmer signed pieces are more desirable than Deskey’s later, traditional designs; vivid, jazzy designs are very collectable – beware of fakes
Marks
Some pieces of Deskey-Vollmer have a metal tag
Frank Lloyd Wright
•    COLLECTING Art Deco style is less valuable than pieces from c.1900 to 1910, but more valuable than post-1945 pieces; original condition is all-important; provenance from notable interior schemes adds greatly to value
Marks
Wright furniture is rarely marked, but is well documented and easily identifiable through style
Saarinen and The Cranbrook Academy of Art
•    COLLECTING Saarinen: designs are scarce but well documented; Eames: very collectable, particularly early work
Other designers
•    COLLECTING identifiable pieces by lesser-known American designers are rare but still not greatly sought after; provenance is important in determining value; commercial furniture is less valuable than domestic
Marks
Pieces are rarely signed by the designer but may bear a maker’s or retailer’s mark; Weber pieces may bear a tag from Lloyd Manufacturing Co.