Hello All,

Here is a Roycroft cylinder vase with the diamond flower motif originally designed by Walter Jennings. It is 7 inches high by 2 ½ inches wide and has what Roycroftcopper.com defines as the little stubby early mark, often found on vases in the latter period of the early mark (teens). There is one image below in this post with a number of others that follow to demonstrate what I am illustrating.

This particular vase is the brass wash but it is heavily oxidized leaving, arguably, a rich palette of colours on the surface (at least to me). It’s been in Florida since at least the early 1970’s and I suspect the salt air has contributed to the oxidation, including some pitting. There is also some of the original green paint that was applied to simulate verdigris still visible in the top portion of the band. However, most has worn away over time.

While photographing this vase the other day I noticed some interesting marks that, while virtually invisible to the naked eye, are highly visible with macro lens images. These appears to be design marks meant to guide the artisan in his(her) hammering! If you follow the images below you will see a little dot inscribed above every one of the five diamond flowers on the decorative band. On either side of the dot you will find vertical lines scratched into the surface that actually go through each flower and follow all the way to the vase bottom. These dots and lines were obviously inscribed as an aid in designing the vase in a geometrically accurate fashion. Specifically, they would likely be have been used to ensure that the vertical ‘stitching’ is indeed vertical and equally spaced. To demonstrate this I have included an image of a similar Roycroft cylinder vase from an auction catalogue that has crooked stitching!

That the dots and lines still remains suggests strongly that the vertical stitching was completed last. Perhaps the metalworkers out there can comment further. I’ll emphasize again that these dots and lines are almost invisible to the naked eye. However, they more or less jump out at you under any magnification. I suspect that my vase is not the only one with evidence of these marks and it would be interesting to see if other cylinder vases or other highly geometrically-tooled Roycroft designs have these artifacts. Can anyone out there with these pieces please check them?

One more point; I’ve noticed two distinct styles of the tooled diamond flower on these Walter Jennings-designed cylinder vases: 1) Jennings-tooled diamond flowers (on actual Jennings signed pieces, plus others) with a circular indentation at the base of where each petal meets the other that further separates the flower, and 2) tooled diamond flowers like in my vase that have no such circular indentation. There are a few other discrete differences, but perhaps I’ll save that for another forum…

As an aside, the site license for roycroftcopper.com has expired since April 27, 2009. If this is permanent what a loss this would be – does anyone know what’s going on?

Best Regards,

Copperoak

A more detailed viewed of the tooled flower with the scribe marks visible.

A yet closer view on another flower. At this scale the tool work is particularly amazing, apart from the dot and lines.

Another flower for comparison.

A much closer view of the tooling and marks.

A view of the two diamonds.

A view of the vase bottom to where the vertical guide marks end.

A second view of the vase bottom to where the vertical guide marks end

Little stubby early mark. Often found on cylinder and other vases in the latter part of the early mark period (late teens).

The dots and lines I've described from my vase were obviously inscribed as an aid in designing the vase in a geometrically accurate fashion. Specifically, they would likely be have been used to ensure that the vertical ‘stitching’ is indeed vertical and equally spaced. To demonstrate this here's an image of a similar Roycroft cylinder vase from an auction catalogue that has crooked stitching!

A final image of the whole vase.

Here's a link to these and further images of the vase in my Flikr account. I'll also update with new information.

Best Regards,

Copperoak

Umm, here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6...s/72157617712008309/

I really love this indepth study of these pieces. It helps us all to understand the processes used to create these items we admire.

The current understanding is that these vases were worked and decorated over a horizontally mounted rod of the same diameter as the interior of the copper pipe. I am certain the centerpunch mark and the scribed lines were to assist the craftsman in the design as you suggest.

Jennings created a great many designs and his work is of high quality and execution. I recall seeing a pair of bookends that were exquisitely done. The quatrefoil designs of the flowers were very popular in his work.

Rich Reitz and Ron VanOstrand are both creating similar pieces today. The work they are doing help us better understand how these items were made.

Thanks again for taking the time to post these images. It is great to find someone so passionate with the collecting and study of these pieces.

Best,

quote:

As an aside, the site license for roycroftcopper.com has expired since April 27, 2009. If this is permanent what a loss this would be – does anyone know what’s going on?

No one knows what happened to the site? I checked at Network Solutions and it looks like the domain name was not renewed until the last minute, so hopefully it should be back up soon.

Lauren

I just heared from the founder of the Roycroftcopper site and he says he is moving it to another host and will be back up in a few days.

Best,

Copperoak:

Here is a 10" vase with the "2 dot" Roycroft/Jennings mark. Where would the: "circular indentation at the base of where each petal meets the other" be found?

Thanks,
Rob

Welcome to the forum Rob,

It is always great to have others on board. There is a finer quality in execution of your vase. Note that there are no overlaping chased lines. I see no layout marks in your vase. Perhaps Jennings did not need to mark out the spacing of the flowers as did others or pehaps he used a pencil.

How many flowers does your vase have?

Best,

Hi Rob,

Thanks for posting the image of your wonderful 'Jennings' cylinder vase -- a 10 incher, to boot. Five quatrefoil flowers, right? As Fred has noticed, there is much finer hammer work, particularly within the flower petals. And look at the great little indents in the flower centre! I thought that perhaps the circular indented type of flowers would consistently have the flower centre indents, but such is not the case. See below...

I've taken the liberty of re-posting your image with circles to indicate the points where I see the circular indentation. When I say circular indent I mean the point at which the petals join where the metal worker has used a centre punch to tap a little circular hole. This 'puffs' out the region and seems to add emphasis to the separation of the petals at that point.

I would say that your vase is in the circular indent category but the indents are not as distinct as in some other vases. See the images below of other vases that have more distint circular indents. Plus or two without (also refer to mine above as a good example of no circular indent).

Best Regards,

Copperoak

Here's a repost of that above with a resized image.

Hi Rob,

Thanks for posting the image of your wonderful 'Jennings' cylinder vase -- a 10 incher, to boot. Five quatrefoil flowers, right? As Fred has noticed, there is much finer hammer work, particularly within the flower petals. And look at the great little indents in the flower centre! I thought that perhaps the circular indented type of flowers would consistently have the flower centre indents, but such is not the case. See below...

I've taken the liberty of re-posting your image with circles to indicate the points where I see the circular indentation. When I say circular indent I mean the point at which the petals join where the metal worker has used a centre punch to tap a little circular hole. This 'puffs' out the region and seems to add emphasis to the separation of the petals at that point.

I would say that your vase is in the circular indent category but the indents are not as distinct as in some other vases. See the images below of other vases that have more distint circular indents. Plus or two without (also refer to mine above as a good example of no circular indent).

Best Regards,

Copperoak