Harry Bertoia’s explorations into welding bronze in the late 1960s developed into fountain forms such as the present lot. He referred to these forms as "fountain maquettes" for their wavy motion-invoking design. In some cases these maquettes did lead to large-scale sculptures, for example the fountains at the Civic Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, Buffalo, New York, and the Memorial Fountain at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia.