AN IMPORTANT SILVER-MOUNTED COPPER PUNCH SERVICE WITH ARROWHEADS

ATTRIBUTED TO JOSEPH HEINRICH, NEW YORK, 1900-1915

Details

AN IMPORTANT SILVER-MOUNTED COPPER PUNCH SERVICE WITH ARROWHEADS
Attributed to Joseph Heinrich, New York, 1900-1915
Comprising punch bowl, tray, twelve cups with glass liners and a punch ladle; the bowl navette-form, on a shaped oval base applied with vari-colored arrowheads lashed on with silver wire, the body etched in imitation of stitched rawhide, the handles formed as fully-modelled Native American masks, the rim applied with a silver band with pendant feathers, each side applied with a fully-modelled bear pelt and a circular shield over crossed bows, arrows and clubs, the interior gilt; the conforming oval tray with hammered surface, the border lashed with similar arrowheads, each side applied with a fully-modelled torso of a bear amid pinecones and needles, the bracket handles formed of two antlers lashed together with silver wire; the twelve cups shaped circular, the hammered surface with an etched chevron border and lashed with silver wire, with curved silver handle and gilt interior; the ladle of typical form with hammered silver bowl, the silver and copper stem with geometric pattern and silver wire bands, the finial formed of an antler with a silver wire and pine needle join; marked COPPER AND SILVER under bases of cups, ladle and tray, the tray with retailer's mark of SHREVE, CRUMP & LOW Co., the bowl apparently unmarked
The tray 32in. long overall, the bowl 25in. long overall and 15in. high
Heinrich, Joseph (15)

Literature

Charles Venable, Silver in America, 1840-1940, 1994, illus. p. 198, fig. 6.68

Exhibited

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1999

Lot Essay

Joseph Heinrich apparently had a thriving trade in artistic copperwares, which were retailed by numerous firms, including Tiffany & Co. and Black Starr & Frost in New York as well as Shreve, Crump & Low in Boston. He also had a Paris workshop about which little is known. In 1907, Heinrich advertised a copper chafing dish with figures of rabbits in House Beautiful, boasting that "the most complete and artistic stock of fine Chafing Dishes, Copper Table service and cooking utensils; Casseroles and Metal Dishes of every variety may be found in my new store." (as quoted in Charles Venable, Silver in America, 1994, p. 319) A chafing dish of the same form as the advertised example is in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, illustrated in Venable, op. cit, fig. 9.3.

The only other known Heinrich piece of such monumentality is a virtually identical punch service in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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