Candelabrum

1902–5

Jessie M. Preston
American, 1873–1962
Chicago

A graduate of the School of the Art Institute, Jessie M. Preston was a notable Chicago Arts and Crafts metalsmith. This candelabra is an example of one of her most successful and graceful Art Nouveau–influenced designs. The center candle stem rests on a base adorned with flowing and swirling grasses, and it sprouts into four asymmetrical and curving branches that end in flowering morning glories. As she did with so much of her metalwork, Preston transformed this candelabra into a dynamic, organic form with a life and movement of its own.

Status: On View, Gallery 177
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Jessie M. Preston
Title: Candelabrum
Place: Chicago (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.: c. 1902–1905
Medium: Bronze
Inscriptions: Marked on the bottom in script "J Preston/ Chicago" with a conjoined "J" and "P"
Dimensions: 49.9 × 34.3 × 33 cm (19 5/8 × 13 1/2 × 13 in.); Base: 21.6 × 20.3 cm (8 1/2 × 8 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Celia and David C. Hilliard
Reference Number: 2003.170

Carlieanne Kaufman Erickson, “A Craft of Their Own: Women and Metalworking in the American Crafts Movement in Boston and Chicago” (M.A. thesis, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution; and Parsons The New School for Design, 2012), p. 43, fig. 3.36.

Art Institute of Chicago, Apostles of Beauty: Arts and Crafts from Britain to Chicago, Nov. 7, 2009–Jan. 31, 2010, cat. 105.

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