310: ELGIN NATIONAL WATCH COMPANY, Compacts, set of four < Art Deco Treasures: Objects from the Capstick-Dale Collection, 5 June 2024 < Auctions

Elgin National Watch Company

Originally founded as the National Watch Company in 1864 and based in Chicago, the firm relocated to Elgin, Illinois, in 1874 and became the Elgin National Watch Company. This move transformed Elgin into a major center for watch and watchcase manufacturing. The company also produced enameled lighters and cigarette cases, often incorporating built-in watches. Driven by commissions from cosmetics manufacturers, Elgin transitioned to making powder compacts, becoming one of the largest producers of enameled compacts. Elgin continued to successfully produce lighters and a variety of compacts into the 1940s.

Art Deco Decorative Techniques

Art Deco—defined by geometric shapes, abstract design, and lavish color—was the visual hallmark of luxury, glamour, and industrial progression. A product of innovative new machinery, economic growth, and social freedoms, the style was first introduced in France before World War I. However, it wasn’t until the 1920s, after the war, that it began to gain international traction. Antique and traditional techniques were revitalized as artists, designers, and architects applied the style across a broad range of visual fields, from opulent structures and interiors to fashionable handheld objects.

The Capstick-Dale collection illustrates forward-thinking artistry and mastery of materials on a small scale. From Jean Dunand’s fashionable eggshell technique to the exploration of lacquer techniques and engine-turned ornamentation, the objects in this auction are exquisitely detailed masterpieces of innovation and beauty.

Eggshell
Jean Dunand introduced the eggshell technique, a method used to achieve a white color when working with urushi, a Japanese varnish that has a brownish tint. Crushed eggshells are applied to the outer layer of the lacquered surface, with convex areas appearing whiter and concave areas appearing darker due to the eggshell's texture. The eggshell creates a varied color pattern and the surface is then cured to make the eggshell adhere before it is polished, and finished with a final layer of varnish. Dunand used this technique to create geometric designs, decorating various objects from cigarette cases to screens. The technique became very fashionable and was adopted by other designers and craftsmen.

Enamel
Enamel is created from a powder of silica, feldspar, borax, quartz, lead, and various color oxides, applied to metal and fired at high temperatures to form a hard, scratch-resistant, and water-repellent finish. Each color in the enamel has a different melting point, allowing multiple colors to be layered without melting the previous ones. Historically, enamel was used for portraits, miniatures, jewelry, and snuffboxes, gaining popularity in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. The early 20th century saw a resurgence in enamel use, particularly in Art Deco designs, as innovations allowed for mass production.

Lacquer
Lacquer is a naturally occurring polymer found in the bark of trees native to Japan, China, Vietnam and Taiwan. Raw sap from these trees is filtered and mixed with color pigments to create a varnish that is applied in layers to the surface of an object. This ancient technique was believed to have been discovered in China during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC). It was brought to Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries where it was widely admired and imitated. The advent of artificial polymers aided in the ease of production and during the early 20th century, designers used traditional lacquer technique to create bold, abstract designs.

Laque Arrachée
This variation on the lacquer technique involves lifting a layer of lacquer with a wood spatula and reapplying it to another lacquered surface producing a mottled effect. The layer can also be embellished with gold leaf, powders, or metal shavings before a final coat of varnish is applied to the surface.

Engine-Turned Finishes
Engine-turned finishes are a decorative technique that involves creating intricate, repetitive patterns on the surface of materials, often metal, using a specialized lathe. An adaptation of the 19th-century technique called guilloché, the process involves mounting the material on an engine-turning lathe, which has a series of geared wheels and rosettes that guide the cutting tool to create precise, repetitive designs. By adjusting the settings of the lathe, artisans can produce a wide variety of patterns, including spirals, waves, and interlacing lines. These patterns not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of an object but also increase its tactile quality.

Glamour To Go, Luxury on the Move

Objects from the Capstick-Dale Collection

It is in the realm of collectible objects that Art Deco has proved supreme. —Victor Arwas

Like priceless gems or tantalizing candies, the Art Deco treasures of the world-renowned Capstick-Dale Collection are small, colorful, and precious—portable emissaries of glamour, optimism, and exquisite craftsmanship arriving to the present from an era past. Encyclopedic in scope, this vast collection spans lighters and cigarette cases, minaudières, compacts, jewelry, and other personal accoutrements, together comprising a heralded and historically important group of objects sourced from around the globe and put together over the course of a lifetime. Documented in the Thames & Hudson volume Art Deco Collectibles and with examples from Jean Dunand, Raymond Templier, Gerard Sandoz, and Paul Brandt, among others, these works offer a truly illuminating glimpse of the Art Deco ethos and lifestyle. And while they are certainly a distinct product of a specific historical moment, they also speak to the timeless and universal allure of beautiful, small things to hold in one’s hand—or slyly retrieve from one’s pocket or purse.

Woman in convertible using a powder compact, USA, 1930s, from *Art Deco Collectibles*

Spanning from 1920 to the conclusion of World War II, the Art Deco era encapsulated a range of social shifts that, significantly, included an unprecedented marriage of design and manufacture. Resulting in what Jared Goss dubbed “the democratization of design,” this newly cemented partnership meant, as noted in Art Deco Collectibles, that “From the 1920s [on,] beautifully designed and well-made objects became widely available for the first time.” Marking a break from the ornate, flowery style of Art Nouveau, Art Deco aesthetics embraced linear geometries and influences that included Cubism, the Vienna Secession, Fauvism, and historic styles from China, Japan, India, Persia, and Egypt, as well as new materials including chrome, stainless steel, and plastic. With expert artisanry and manufacturing techniques to bring it all together, Art Deco objects embody the anticipation of a future whose doors had been flung wide open technologically and culturally.

With expert artisanry and manufacturing techniques to bring it all together, Art Deco objects embody the anticipation of a future whose doors had been flung wide open technologically and culturally.

While the Art Deco period ended when WWII shifted the attention of both consumers and manufacturers, the appreciation for the era’s material culture—particularly personal effects—has remained fervent, in no small part because of the undeniable and lasting quality of fabrication. When Rodney Capstick-Dale began to collect such items in the late 1960s, his passion was shared by figures including Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, and Andy Warhol. From highly rare objects, including two Raymond Templier cigarette cases and a German Expressionist-influenced Cigarette case and lighter by Gerard Sandoz, to compacts, smoking accessories, and perfume packaging from unknown makers, each object in the Capstick-Dale Collection represents both an impassioned collector and an explosively exciting and generative moment in global history.