Mary Lee Hu - Design New York Thursday, June 9, 2016 | Phillips

Design

New York Auction 9 June 2016 

  • Provenance

    June Schwarcz, California

  • Literature

    Donald J. Willcox, Body Jewelry, International Perspectives, Chicago, 1973, p. 69 for a similar example
    Elizabeth Breckenridge, “Mary Lee Hu: High on the Wire,” Craft Horizons, April 1977, p. 42 for a similar example
    Helen W. Drutt English and Peter Dormer, Jewelry of our Time: Art, Ornament and Obsession, New York, 1995, p. 305 for a similar example

  • Catalogue Essay

    Mary Lee Hu studied metalwork and jewelry at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and earned a graduate degree in metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 1965. Her studies here also included a fiber arts course which led to the creation of her signature use of textile techniques in jewelry by weaving, wrapping and knitting silver or gold wire. Hu often found inspiration in Taiwanese and Tibetan art as well in natural forms including insects and animals. The present lot is a fine early characteristic example of her work, from the personal collection of the renowned enamelist June Schwarcz.

    Mary Lee Hu’s works are in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Columbus Museum of Fine Arts, Ohio; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, among others.

Property from the Estate of June Schwarcz

97

Mary Lee Hu

Neckpiece

1970s
Sterling silver.
7 1/4 x 6 1/2 x 1 1/2 in. (18.4 x 16.5 x 3.8 cm)
Stamped HU/STERLING.

Estimate
$3,000 - 5,000 

Sold for $3,750

Contact Specialist
Design New York
+1 212 940 1268

Design

New York Auction 9 June 2016