Bonbonnière

Arts of the Americas

1938

Margret Craver
American, 1907–2010
Wichita, Kansas

Trained in the Arts and Crafts tradition of metalworking, Margaret Craver was nonetheless influenced by instructors at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, mid-20th-century America’s premier design center. As a result, she created handcrafted hollowware and jewelry out of traditional materials such as sterling silver and enamel, yet she imbued her dynamic pieces with colorful, energetic patterns. In this work, Craver married the smooth surfaces, decorative flourishes, and exquisite workmanship of Scandinavian design with the unified geometry of Art Deco decoration.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Margret Craver
Title: Bonbonnière
Place: Wichita (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1938
Medium: Silver and cloisonné enamel
Inscriptions: Marked on bottom: STERLING / c
Dimensions: 5.7 × 13.4 × 13.4 cm (2 3/4 × 5 1/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Americana Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 1985.516a-b

Jennifer M. Downs, “The New Modern Feeling’: A Catalogue of the Collection,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 27, 2 (2001), 66–67, no. 18.
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 115.
Judith A. Barter, Elizabeth McGoey, et al., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), cat. 91 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey, ed., American Silver in the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), https://publications.artic.edu/americansilver/reader/collection/section/6, cat. 91 (ill.).
Bobbye Tigerman, et al., Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: DelMonico Books•Prestel, 2020), 195, cat. 21 (ill.).

Possibly Philadelphia, Art Alliance Exhibition, 1938.
Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, Scandinavian Design and the United States, 1890–1980, Oct. 14, 2021–Jan. 9, 2022; Oslo, Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Mar. 17–Aug. 7, 2022; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oct. 9, 2022–Feb. 5, 2023; Milwaukee Art Museum, Mar. 24–July 23, 2023, cat. 21 (Stockholm, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee only).

Margaret Craver, Wichita, KS, 1938; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1985.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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