Linke - Artinfo

All in the Details
+ Although critically
acknowledged,
Zimmermann was
never a commercial
success, which led her
to close her workshop
in 1939. In a letter
at the time, she wrote
she was “too tied up
and too discouraged
to carry on.”
+ Her first piece to enter
the Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
a covered jar in gold,
jade, rock crystal, and
rubies, was acquired
in 1922 for the new
department of modern
decorative arts.
+ Zimmermann did not
execute every aspect
of her work herself.
She called in experts
as needed, including
Riccardo Bertelli
of Roman Bronze
Works, in Brooklyn,
and a smithy in Pike
County, Pennsylvania,
for black ironwork.
theconnoisseur
managed a staff of six, sold work
to Edsel B. and Eleanor Clay Ford,
and executed commissions for A.
Montgomery Ward and others. She
also rode, fished, and hunted—
bears included—equipping herself
at Abercrombie & Fitch, then a
leading gunsmith. And she was an
avid motorist, often seen at the wheel
of her late-model McFarlan Roadster
on the back roads of Pike County,
Pennsylvania, where her family
had a farm.
WHERE IS THE MARKET?
“So little by Zimmermann has come
to market that I don’t think collectors
understand her work,” says Jodi
Pollack, senior vice president and
head of the 20th-century design
department at Sotheby’s New York,
which sold a Zimmermann vase in
2010 for $16,250
(est. $15–20,000).
Pollack adds
that much of
the work work remains
in the the possession
of the the family—Jack
family—Jack
Zimmermann, the
artist’s great-nephew,
in particular, who has
sold items items sporadically.
“There’s a great great deal
of inconsistency in what
she produced; a a lot of it is minor,”
says David Rago of Rago Arts and
Auction Center Center in Lambertville, New
Jersey, who says he has has handled
roughly 400 Zimmermann
pieces in 40 years, including
the record-setting carved
chest. “More than any other
artist I’ve seen, when
she chose to make a
masterpiece, she
did.” Rago says that
the better works,
like the patinated patinated
copper vessels
most familiar familiar
to the the market,
have have sold for
under $10,000, $10,000,
while while much much of the
rest has sold sold for
between between $3,000
and $5,000.
Richard Wright
of Wright
in Chicago has handled four lots,
including a pair of vases on stands
offered in June 2012; estimated at
$7,000 to $9,000, they went unsold.
The jewelry, with only several
hundred examples extant, is scarce
almost to the point of nonexistence.
Zimmermann’s strength as an artist
has been a key factor in the weakness
of her market. “She “She defies
categorization, which which I
suspect would please
her,” says Rosalie
Berberian, Berberian, a a scholar and
appraiser appraiser who has worked
with Jack Jack Zimmermann to
place pieces for sale. The
output resists specialists’
collecting. Zimmermann’s
interest in antiquities, from Celtic
patterns to Tang Dynasty colors,
puts her work literally all over the
map, with a 2,000-year spread.
HOW TO BEGIN AND WHAT AT A
TO LOOK FOR
“She’s so idiosyncratic,”
Barnes tells potential
Zimmermann buyers, that
what you decide to collect
“doesn’t make a difference.
What do you gravitate
toward? It’s It’s what what you respond
to when you look at it.”
Jane Prentiss, director of the
20th-century design department
at Skinner, advises collectors that
“the form, the patina, and whatever
decorative element—these three
things together create the ‘signature’
for her work.” Prentiss says the
Boston auction house was the first
to sell a Zimmermann piece, a bowl
for $300, in 1994.
Zimmermann experimented with
chemicals, heat, paints, waxes,
and lacquer to produce remarkably
layered patinas in rich tones like red
and verdigris. Some colors, like a
midnight blue-black, are more rare than
others. Zimmermann also gilded and
plated objects.
The works are incised with a
distinctive MZ logo on the bottom.
Zimmermann was proud of her career
and promoted herself vigorously,
once sending a letter to the editor of
Vanity Fair signed “A Subscriber” and
recommending a current exhibit by
Marie Zimmermann. Locating a date on
a work is not an issue: She never dated
pieces. Nor are fakes and forgeries
a matter of concern. The techniques
are complicated, and, for the moment,
no one has reason to copy them.
Condition is trickier. Zimmermann liked
distressing and artificially aging her
work to “antique” it. A buyer should be
alert to what is original and what is
wear and tear.
A colorful bracelet in gold, enamel, and
sapphires, top, and three vessels that
exemplify the range of Zimmermann’s forms,
materials, surfaces, and prices: a silver
centerpiece, ca. 1920, above, that sold for
$18,800 at Christie’s in 2000; a spun copper
vase with verdigris patina, 9¾ x 10 inches,
left, that fetched $1,586 at Rago in 2010; and
a patinated bronze vase, “Model No. 77,”
ca. 1920, nearly eight inches tall, center of
page, purchased at Sotheby’s in 2010 by the
Two Red Roses Foundation for $16,250.
MARCH/APRIL 2013 | BLOUINArtinfo.comAsiA
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: DAVID COLE AND AMERICAN DECORATIVE ART 1900 FOUNDATION; CHRISTIE’S; RAGO; TWO RED ROSES FOUNDATION AND SOTHEBY’S