REUBEN HALEY (1872–1933)

A GROUP OF SEVEN 'RUBA ROMBIC' VESSELS, CIRCA 1928

Details

REUBEN HALEY (1872–1933)
A GROUP OF SEVEN 'RUBA ROMBIC' VESSELS, CIRCA 1928
Comprising two ceramic vessels manufactured by Muncie Pottery, Muncie, Indiana; and five glass vessels manufactured by Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
6 ¼ in. (16 cm.) high, tallest

Provenance

The Ruba Rombic: acquired from Rosemary Trietsch, The Glass Cupboard, New York, 19 November 2011.

Literature

cf. J. Stewart Johnson. American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age exhibition catalogue, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2000, p. 122 for another glass vase from this series.

Lot Essay

An anagram of Ruba’i, the Persian poetry genre, and irregular rhombic structures, Haley’s bizarre Ruba-Rombic vessels reveal a fascination for crystallography and for the Cubist paintings to which he was exposed in Paris in 1925. Industrially-produced, the vessels were designed for broad appeal and were distributed through department stores across America. Examples are retained in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York.

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