My luck has been good lately. I suppose I could attribute it to good living and pure intentions..... (Smile). I have recently purchased a nice hand raised bowl made by one of the craftsmen/women of the Minneapolis Handicraft Guild. I was surprised at the thiness of guage used to make this classic piece. Have others found other items marked by this organization of artists and craftsmen? I would love to make comparisons with others. I have seen pierced bowls that originally had glass inserts. The gauge of these bowl seem fairly heavy.

It would be nice to get a discussion going on the different qualities by craftsmen of this important guild.

Fred

I wish some of your luck would rub off on me. My luck in hunting metalware is not very good. I have owned and sold a couple pieces of Heintz but that's about it. Of course I regret selling these several years ago, but that was another time. I looked up the Minneapolis Guild with a Google search and some very good work popped up. Maybe you can provide some more info - was it a large guild? Was their work prolific and did it get distributed widely (something to hunt for in other words)?

The Guild was rather short lived. 1905-18 I believe. The book by Michael Conforti
"Art and Life on the Upper Mississippi, 1890-1915" does a great job of documenting the Guild. Their items are not easy to find and usually demand high figures. Mirror imaged pair of peacocks is a reoccuring theme in the work by the members of the Guild. I always keep my out for whatever I can find and learn from.

If I can learn how to get images on here I will post on of the bowl.

Fred

{removed broken image}

Here's a gallery of MHG pieces/pics I found on the web. The lamp design is clearly a Dirk Van Erp style. The quality is evident in all the work. The note I read about the copper spoon said pieces from the firm are quite scarce and rarely come to auction.

To post pics Fred, you need to register with a free online hosting service (I'm presently using onfinite.com as an example) and then upload pics to that account. From that account you can look at the pic on its own page and then you copy and paste the address bar text from the pic in to the message window, on this forum, using the button that says 'Display Image' which will put little code tags around the address which makes the pic viewable here - hope this helps - not as hard as it sounds once you get it to work.

Stonecat

Stonecat,

Seems you and I visit the same websites. The internet has flooded us with valuable information and the descriminating search can reveal wonderful info and images.

Thanks for the info on posting. I will attempt to post sometime soon.

The pierced bowls you posted on the bottom were provided with a glass inserts I suspect few of them survive the years.

Fred

The following is gleaned from Comforti's book. Some of the more influential members of the Guild were:

Ernest Batchelder: Pottery
Batchelder was hired to teach design and pottery at the Guild building.

Mary Moulton Cheney: Designer

Bertha Lum: Woodblock Printing

Harry S. Michie: Metalwork

Ida Pell Conklin: Jewelry

Douglas Donaldson: Jewelry & Metalwork

Harold L. Boyle: Metalwork

Harriet S. Flagg: Jewelry

The guild was dissolved in 1918 and was absorbed into the University of Minnesotta as the new Department of Art Education.

Fred

Here is an image of the bowl and it's mark.

I'm doing research on a biography of Elisabeth Chant who had a studio in the Handicraft Guild Building, was active in getting it built. If you should run across any information about her, I'd love to hear from you. ppayne51@cs.com Peggy Payne

Peggy,

Have you seen the book by Comforti? I will check my copy out to see if she is in it. I suspect she is since she was quite the painter.

She is represented in the book "MINNESOTA IMPRESSIONISTS"

Will your biography of Ms. Chant be available in print and when might we see this?

Are you by any chance related to Arthur Frank Payne?

I will not provide the link to the online auction.... and eBay is advertizing a wonderful and rare example of Handicraft Guild of Minneapolis.
It is smoker set in copper with etched designs. The images are not terribly clear and it still is nice to see their work. I will try to get permission from the vendor to post images.

Fred,
Do you think that the buy-it-now price of $7500 is high, low, or fair?

Lauren

It is a rare piece and I think the seller is fishing to see how high it will go for. I would not pay that price for it. I am a man of modest means. I have seen copper bowls by HGofM sell for under $500.

I feel it is well overpriced at $7500. If I had that kind of money to spend I would acquire the HGofM candlestick for $1800 that is being sold by Eastwood Gallery.

The final price when the hammer came down was under $350. That was a reasonable if not inexpensive price for such a rare piece.

There are a pair of bookends up for auction this week on eBay.

Yes! I saw them and they are spectacular. The decoration is all done from the back. It is not easy to do this technique well. There is also a slotted spoon by the Handicraft Guild. I suspect these will both go for high dollar amounts.

The bookends sold well. A little over $1,000 and the spoon over $500. These were great examples and I am not surprised by the prices.