Kem Weber - Design New York Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Pat Shaw, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
    Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 1975

  • Literature

    I. B. Gorham, "Comfort, Convenience, Colour: Examples from the Designs of Kem Weber on the Pacific Coast," The Studio, vol. 100, July 1930, p. 253
    Kem Weber: The Moderne in Southern California 1920 Through 1941, exh. cat., The Art Galleries, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1969, p. 64
    Christopher Long, KEM Weber: Designer and Architect, New Haven, 2014, pp. 103, 107

  • Catalogue Essay

    During the late 1920s many American manufacturers began to explore modernist styles. One of these was the California firm Porter Blanchard, with whom KEM Weber collaborated. The resulting objects in pewter are some of the most prized works by the iconic American designer. The present lot is one of two known examples of this rare model; the other was sold at Sotheby's New York in June 2010. Shortly after its conception the centerpiece was illustrated in The Studio, where it is shown on a dining suite by Grand Rapids Furniture Company. The consecutive parallel lines and mechanical aspect of the form are typical motifs used by progressive American designers of the interwar years, representative of the popular streamlined aesthetic of “Machine Age" modernism. The inverted ziggurat form of the base relates to a flower bowl attributed to Weber and dated circa 1930 in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery (illustrated John Stuart Gordon, A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920-1950, New Haven, 2011, p. 174, cat. no. 113).

233

Centerpiece

circa 1928-1929
Pewter, ebony.
4.25 x 12.5 x 9.25 in. (10.8 x 31.8 x 23.5 cm)
Produced by Porter Blanchard, Burbank, California. Underside impressed with PORTER BLANCHARD/COLONIAL PEWTER/BURBANK/CAL.

Estimate
$15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for $16,250

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1266

Design

New York Auction 17 December 2014 11am