Vase

Jean Dunand

ca. 1920 · Copper, inlaid silver · Modern and Contemporary Art

This gourd-shaped vase is a masterful example of traditional metalworking. Dunand excelled at the craft of dinanderie—a term derived from Dinant, a town near Liège, Belgium, where hand-worked metalwares had been produced since the Middle Ages. The process consists of raising a form from a thin, flat sheet of metal (usually copper) by hammering over shaped molds in a spiral pattern starting at the center of the sheet. Occasional reheating of the object is necessary to prevent the metal from becoming too brittle and fracturing during the process. A sulphuric acid bath and rapid beating of the surface with a flat-headed mallet eliminates visible hammer marks from a finished piece. In this case, the copper body was embellished with inlaid silver decoration.

Artist

Jean Dunand

Date

ca. 1920

Medium

Copper, inlaid silver

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Purchase, Edward C. Moore Jr. Gift, 1923