John Prip: American Metalsmith, 16 March 2017 < Auctions

Auction / 16 March 2017 Noon ct

On March 16th Wright presents John Prip: American Metalsmith, an auction celebrating the life and work of one of the country’s most innovative workers in metal. Comprised of more than 100 works from the artist’s own collection, this sale features pieces made between the 1950s and the 1990s and ranges from flatware studies to sculpture and jewelry. From well-known designs for Reed & Barton to one-of-a-kind functional and decorative objects, the works in this sale exhibit technical precision, innovation and a mastery of material.

John Prip never constructs forms merely to be different, they evolve from observation, thought, experimentation and discovery. This gives to his work a unique personal and timeless quality.

Olaf Skoogfors

Lark flatware studies $3,000–5,000

Collages of flatware

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The sale features more than 40 lots of jewelry designed by John Prip

prototype cigarette box $3,000–5,000

teapot $15,000–20,000

John Axel Prip 1922–2009

John Axel Prip was a silversmith that redefined the medium of both handcrafted and machine-fabricated metalworks. Born in New York in 1922, Prip moved with his Danish father and American mother to Denmark at the age of 10, where his father opened a silversmithing factory. As a teenager, Prip apprenticed at his father’s business. It was here that Prip learned the traditional and technical craft of his medium.

Prip returned to the United States in 1948. He accepted a job as a teacher at the School for the American Craftsman (now known as the School for American Crafts), which was a newly opened school in Alfred, New York dedicated to training highly skilled craftspeople. While teaching, Prip and fellow metalsmith Ronald Pearson, woodworker Tage Frid, and Bauhaus ceramist Frans Wildenhain founded a new gallery called Shop One to display their groundbreaking works of craft.