A fluted floriform copper vase on a small pedestal foot with a flaring rim and distinctive red patina by noted American metalsmith Marie Zimmermann (1879-1972). The unusual patina coloration in a dramatic red over black was dubbed "flaming scarlet" in period press. The vase comes directly from the artist's estate and dates circa 1915, while Zimmermann maintained a workshop studio and showroom at the National Arts Club in New York.
Very good condition, stamped MARIE ZIMMERMANN MAKER around her MZ cipher over 75 (form number) underfoot, measuring 6.5 in. H x 6.5 in. W (at rim).
The vase shows Zimmermann at her most creative, interpreting historical design sources for a modern audience. She created the vase during the Arts and Crafts period, interpreting lobed vessel forms from the Chinese T'ang Dynasty (618-906 CE). She finished the vase with dramatic and painterly patination, layering red over black with trailing brush strokes, anticipating Art Deco interiors and invoking historical lacquer work in the same design. Art critic Mary Fanton Roberts referred to this coloration as "flaming scarlet" in "An American Worker in the Crafts," for House & Garden, February 1922, p. 28.
Zimmermann paid a great deal of attention to the surfaces of her objects, using combinations of heat, chemicals and a range of pigments, varnishes and wax to achieve a range of distinctive finishes. Examples of Zimmermann's fluted copper vessels patinated in unique shades of butterscotch, verdigris, blue and red are illustrated on pages 236-240 in The Jewelry and Metalwork of Marie Zimmermann, 2012.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City holds the largest collection of objects by Marie Zimmermann, making their first acquisition in 1922. A variety of her jewelry and metalwork designs are also in the collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Wolfsonian-Florida International University and the Columbus Museum of Art.
Provenance: The estate of Marie Zimmermann.
