Today, I found a pair of 10 inch high copper vases--American beauty shape, wonderful brown patina, no damage and flawless craftsmanship. They have a bas-relief motif of leaves and small flowers along one side and may be hollow. The bottom is rivited onto the upper vase shape because you can see the rivetts from the inside. The vases weigh a ton.

The owner of the shop said that she bought them from an 83 year old woman who said that the vases belonged to her mother. There are also two small copper vases with birds and branches on them--about two inches high. I prefer the larger ones but they are priced at $234 each.

One of them leaks. We found out that when the owner put water inside to clean out all of dirt and cobwebs. There were no shop marks inside the vase. Roycroft often but their shopmark on the inside botton of the vase.

I don't know if that these vases are too high or fairly priced, or such an outrageously cheap deal that I should go find the money immediately. I have no idea what a pair of unmarked A & C copper vases with that warm walnut brown finish would be worth. I was looking for a copper tray and never expected to find these. I am just learning about copper and I can honestly say, I have no idea what these vases are worth.

Bev.

Bev,

It is hard to say what they are worth. Can you take an image and post it? I am not aware of Roycroft stamping inside a vase. I have seen their mark on the inside of trays and other shallow objects.

Fred

I got my camera to work today. I will go out tomorrow, take the photo's and post some pictures.

Here is a website of current Roycroft values. It looks as though some of them had shop marks inside the vases. Maybe I misunderstood their photo's. I have never seen any of these vases in real life.

http://www.roycroftcopper.com/welcome.htm


Bev.

Bev,

I emailed the Roycroft group and the first to respond was the owner of the roycroftcopper site you linked. I asked if they had ever seen the shop mark used in a vase and those who responded said they had not.

The most discrete Roycroft mark I have ever seen was under the curled over handle of a letter opener. You have to look very carefully to see it.

Fred

Actually, the photos were from that website. Looks like I misunderstood the photos.

I have been able to find something like it on the web. It has been cleaned so the color is odd and the vase was turned into a lamp. But, the design technique of thre raised leaves and flowers were identical. The stylized leaf pattern looked a lot like the one I had seen at the shop. The flowers were very different.

It was titled: Vintage Art Nouveau Meiji Bronze/Brass Vase. They say that is it about 100 years old from the Meiji period. (Never heard of it.)

Here is the link to the site:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Vintage-Art-Nouveau-Japanese-Meiji-B...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hopefully, I can post pictures tomorrow.

Bev.

Bev,

The ebay item is a cast bronze vase. The roycroft vase that is similar in style is of much lighter weight since it wass spun on a lathe in sections and then soldered together.

I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Fred

I got the camera to work, finally but made time to do more research on the web. The vases are not A & C but are without a doubt from the Meiji period (1868-1912), Japan. They are heavy and cast bronze. There is not a scratch on the pair and they are gorgeous.

These vases predate and overlap the A & C movement in Europe and the States. Therefore, one can assume that this type of art is the type of Japanese art the artists collected back then. This style of art (clean lines, bold forms, simplified desigsn)became a major influence on their artisic world of design. That's the reason why these vases would blend beautifully with A & C. These vases, prints, pottery from the Meiji period are what artists like Degas, Monet, Frank Lloyd Wright, Vincent Van Gogh, William Morris, Charles Vorsey, the Green and Green brother's of Califnonia, etc. collected and studied. The style of these vases and other Meiji artwork, were a major influence on craftsman like Heinz. This vase has the same light and airy feel of Heinz's sterling floral vase and bowl designs.

It is helpful to indentify these Meiji vases as a precursor influence on the movement. Without a lot of research, I found it difficut to determine if they were true A & C or something else.

Now that I have a camera, I will get those pictures taken and posted. I hope the vases are still there. But since they are not A & C, I doubt that I will buy them at $223 a piece.

Bev.