Art Deco Modernist John Otar Brass Copper Box, 1930s Machine Age Design

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About the Item

Rare Art Deco brass and copper lidded box (originally designed for cigarettes) designed and produced by John Otar. The box is composed of individual triangular plates stacked to create a spectacular twisting spiral form. no markings. Russian-born Otar, a lamp-maker of note, fabricated these covered boxes and cigarette holders in his 1930s Santa Cruz workshop. Unique fabrication of stacked and twisted triangular copper and brass plates. This 1936 patented design (submitted in 1933) is unique, in that the discs are axially aligned, superimposed upon each other, and frictionally engaged under compression to avoid displacement. A ground-breaking approach to modernist engineered industrial design. Featured in numerous museum collections. The Art Deco style name was derived from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, where the style was first exhibited. Art Deco design represented modernism turned into fashion. Its products included both individually crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the intention was to create a sleek and antitraditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistication. The distinguishing features of the style are shapes that ares geometric or stylized from representational forms and crafted out of often expensive materials, which frequently include man-made substances in addition to natural ones (jade, silver, obsidian, chrome and rock crystal). Though Art Deco objects were rarely mass-produced, the characteristic features of the style reflected admiration for the modernity of the machine and for the inherent design qualities of machine-made objects. Decorative ideas came from American Indian, Egyptian and early classical sources as well as from nature. Characteristic motifs included nude female figures, animals, foliage and sunrays, all in conventionalized forms. Most of the outstanding Art Deco creators designed individually crafted or limited-edition items. They included the furniture designers Jacques Ruhlmann the architect Eliel Saarinen; metalsmith Jean Puiforcat; glass and jewelry designer René Lalique; fashion designer Erté and the figural sculptor Chiparus. Modernism, particularly the austere form we now associate with the Bauhaus, was developing among the avant garde designers as an intellectual expression of the age of the machine and technology. The pioneers of modernism had rejected market-led consumerism, instead aiming for mass-produced goods that concentrated on social utility and usefulness.

Creator:
John Otar (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 4.73 in (12 cm)Diameter: 5.12 in (13 cm)
Style:
Art Deco (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Copper
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1930s
Condition:
Seller Location:
Bremen, DE
Reference Number:
Seller: B- 0021stDibs: LU97994063133

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