William Harper (American, b. 1944) Important "Garden Rattle", USA, 1973

Gold and silver cloisonne, polychrome enamel on copper, electro-formed silver, mirrored glass, pebbles, cast bronze
Unmarked

(L: 11, W: 5 1/2, D: 1 1/2 in.)

Qty: (1)

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist
Property from the Robert L. Pfannebecker Collection

Exhibited

"William Harper: Recent Works in Enamel", Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., November 24, 1977 – April 2, 1978.
"Robert L. Pfannebecker Collection. A Selection of Contemporary American Crafts", Moore College of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania October 17 - November 20, 1980.
"William Harper: Artist as Alchemist", Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida, November 4 - December 10, 1989; Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustimuseum, Trondheim, Norway, January 8 - February 11, 1990; Kunstverein, Coburg, West Germany, March 5 - April 8, 1990; Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus, Hanau, West Germany, April 30 - June 3, 1990; L'Art de L'Email, Limoges, France, July 1 - August 31, 1990; American Craft Museum, New York, New York, October 5, 1990 - January 6, 1991; Cummer Gallery of Art, Jacksonville, Florida, January 21 - February 24, 1991; Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas, March 18 - April 21, 1991; Oklahoma City Art Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, May 13 - June 16, 1991.

Literature

Susan Cummins et al., In Flux: American Jewelry and the Counterculture, Arnoldsche, Stuttgart, 2020, p. 43 (for a discussion of the artist)
Thomas Manhart, William Harper: Artist as Alchemist, exh. cat., Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida, 1989, p. 11 (present lot discussed), pl. 2, p. 19 (present lot illustrated)

Artist Biography

William Harper was born in Bucyrus, Ohio in 1944. Harper received his B.S. in 1966 and M.S. in 1967 in education from Case Western Reserve University. He studied advanced enameling at the Cleveland Institute of Art, studying with Kenneth Bates. A painter-turned-enamelist, Harper began producting enamel jewlry and objects in the 1970s. Harper was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1978 and NEA grants in 1979 and 1980. In 1980 and 1985 he received fellowhsips from the Florida Arts Council. Harper taught at Florida State University from 1973 to 1992. His work has been widely exhibited, including a solo show at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. in 1977, and an internationally traveling retrospective in 1989. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others.

Very good original condition overall; original patina; all elements structurally intact with no breaks, repairs, or noted restorations; electroformed metal elements displaying aged rainbowing to patina; glass mirror plate intact with no discernible scratches or losses; enamel face in very good condition with no noted losses or repairs; some minor stress hairlines near where some enamel meets cloisonnes, likely achieved in the annealing; very small area (approximately 3/8 in. x 1/16 in.) with thin gouge to white enamel edge just below central blue enamel roundel, exhibiting slight divot/loss, very minor.