Robert Jarvie - The Jarvie Shop - The Shop of Robert Jarvie

[dognose]

R.R. Jarvie - Chicago - 1902

Trev.

[dognose]

Some detail of Robert Jarvie prior to him entering his metal-working career on a full-time basis:


Mr. R. R. Jarvie has recently been appointed superintendent of transportation of the Metropolitan Elevated Railroad, of Chicago. Mr. Jarvie was one of the assistants of the former superintendent of the company, and he has been in the employ of the company for six years. The officials of the company realize that they have in Mr. Jarvie an employee who has mastered all the details of the system, and one in whom they could not have more confidence.

Source: Street Railway Journal - 29th June 1901

Trev.

[dognose]

The Jarvie Shop - Chicago - 1906

Trev.

[dognose]

The work of Robert Jarvie:










Some of Mr. Jarvie’s candlesticks, recently seen in his workshop, are extremely interesting. There are several in brass, tall and slender in design, that have the iridescent qualities of Tiffany glass. Another is, in plain brass, and still another is a successful experiment in pewter.

Source: The House Beautiful - December 1900

Trev.

[dognose]

A couple of advertisements from the Krayle Company, an early outlet for the work of R.R. Jarvie, who probably sold his productions from 1901:


Krayle Work-Shop - Chicago - 1900


Krayle Work-Shop - Chicago - 1901



THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND CRAFTS IN MINNEAPOLIS EXHIBITION - 1901

Notable were the candlesticks of solid and spun brass, the work of R. R. Jarvie, of the Krayle Company, Chicago, and very unique was his Dutch iron lantern with horn sides.

Source: Brush and Pencil - March 1901

Trev.

[dognose]

All the world should burn candlesticks when candlesticks are so beguiling. One man in Chicago has won the title of “candlestick maker.” He makes other things, but people sometimes forget this fact. Lanterns, bowls, lamp-shades, come from his workshop, also door-knockers. If you wish a Jarvie candlestick for a friend, or as an acceptable present for yourself, you can make a journey to the West Side studio, or to the Kalo shop in the Fine Arts Building. You will find an illustrated Greek alphabet—a candlestick alphabet, to be exact. Here is Alpha, a graceful stick in brass, suggesting a high poppy cup; here are Beta and Gamma in copper, brass and bronze verdegrene; Delta, Epsilon, Eta, Iota, Kappa, Theta, and Zeta, in various high and low designs, all attractive in shape and charming in their dull or highly polished surfaces. The Eta is a hand-made saucer-stick, quaint enough to have belonged to some great-grandmother. When a bayberry dip is placed in its socket the old-time atmosphere is complete. Among the interesting revivals of old industries is that of candle dipping. The bay or wax berry is used, and the result is highly successful. The candles or dips are about eight inches long, and of a grayish green. When lighted they produce a flame of a beautiful soft luster. “These candles,” writes an early historian, “are never greasy to the touch, nor melt with lighting in the hottest weather. Neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow candle, but, instead of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the rooms, insomuch that nice people often put them out on purpose to have the incense of the expiring Snuff.” Mr. Jarvie's bayberry dips are made by a member of the Hingham Arts-and-Crafts Society. For the Christmas table these old-time candles seem especially appropriate.

Source: The House Beautiful - December 1904

Trev.

[dognose]

The Jarvie Shop - Chicago - 1906

Trev.

[dognose]

The silver punch bowl illustrated in the frontispiece was made by The Shop of Robert Jarvie of Chicago for Mr. Charles L. Hutchinson, who presented it to the Cliff Dwellers of that city, a club composed of painters, writers, musicians, craftsmen and artists of various sorts. It is especially interesting that this bowl should have been made and presented to the Club by two of its charter members.

Through the courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History, Mr. Jarvie obtained a plaster cast of an original pre-historic Indian (cliff dweller) bowl and adapted the design for the silver bowl from this. In his presentation speech Mr. Hutchinson remarked on the added interest the original cliff dweller craftsman might have taken in his bowl as he squatted at his work, shaping the vessel with his hands and crudely etching in the pattern with his thumb nail, could he have looked down the ages and seen another "Cliff Dweller" craftsman reproducing and glorifying his bowl in precious metal with all the skill that civilization has brought.

The bowl is entirely hand-wrought, being made in two pieces. It stands ten and a half inches high and has a diameter of sixteen inches. The decoration on the outside is repoussed and chased. While the pattern is intricate in its working out, it produces a feeling of great simplicity and dignity which is the prevailing characteristic of all Mr. Jarvie's work. An elaborate and unusual ceremony for the presentation was arranged, the dedication taking the form of a play dealing with the history of the original bowl, and called "The Masque of Quetzal's Bowl."

The opening scene reveals the studio of an Artificer, a restorer of antiques, who is engaged in repairing some Egyptian figurines. On his table stands a bowl. He is interrupted by the entrance of a queer old antiquarian who has been drawn into the shop by an instinctive feeling that there is something there which would be of great interest to him. It developes that the antiquarian is a collector of drinking vessels which have a personal history. For instance, he says, "I have two little black earthenware cups from which Hamilcar drank native wine when he rested in Sardinia on his way to the conquest of Sicily, and I have the goblet which touched the lips of Anthony when the galleys swung into line at Actium." In truth, the Antiquarian is a Hunter of Lost Visions, one who has the gift of restoring, by wetting their lips with wine, the dreams which lie in ancient goblets.

He regards the Indian bowl with enthusiastic delight, for he recognizes it as a ceremonial bowl from a temple of Quetzal, the dawn-god of the Aztecs. He demands that he be allowed to set free its imprisoned visions of the ancient west for a circle of poets and painters and makers of music. The Artificer refuses his fantastic plea, and the Antiquarian goes out sadly, but he has left behind him a compelling suggestion about the placing of new wine in old goblets. The curiosity of the Artificer is aroused and he tries just a few drops. The bowl begins to glow. Fascinated by his success he empties the contents of his flagon. As he gazes eagerly into the bowl the lights disappear.

When they come on again his vision is seen upon the stage. It is the interior of an Aztec temple. The old King lies dead upon his bier before the altar. Two priests chant before their idols, praying for the admission of the dead King's soul to the regions of the blest. The young King enters, and by various wiles and devices strives to gain possession of the bowl from which Quetzal had drunk on the night before his mystical banishment. After a long struggle the High Priest, driven to desperation by the urgency of the young Chief, dashes the sacred bowl upon the temple floor before his gods. A thunder of drums and cymbals and the lights again disappear.

In the third scene the Antiquarian returns to the workshop, and the Artificer, now convinced of his magic, gladly gives him the bowl to do with as he will. The Antiquarian then stepped to the footlights and delivered the bowl with an appropriate sentiment to Mr. Hutchinson who presented it to the Cliff Dwellers. After a speech of acceptance by Mr. Hamlin Garland, President of the Club, the bowl was immediately put to its proper use, the unprisoning of visions!

The play was written by Thomas Wood Stevens and Kenneth Sawyer Goodman; the incidental music composed by Frederick Stock; the parts of the Antiquarian and the Artificer were enected by Donald Robertson and Hart Conway, while the music was rendered and the remaining parts taken by other members of the Club.

Source: Handicraft - May 1911

Trev.

[dognose]

The Shop of Robert Jarvie - Chicago - 1911

Trev.

[dognose]

REVERE-JARVIE SILVER

The coffee and tea service illustrated on this page has just been executed in the shop of Robert Jarvie, Chicago. The design is adapted from an original Paul Revere teapot. Much of Revere's silver was made for churches, his pieces for the home being extremely limited and together with his other works have gradually found their way into museums and private collections. As the shapes for home use were so good, Mr. Jarvie has thought to perpetuate them and therefore has designed this service, changing the spouts and handle as seemed more fitting. To go with this silver he has also designed and executed a complete set of flat ware, harmoniously decorated.

Source: Art and Progress - August 1914

Trev.

[dognose]

R.R. Jarvie - Chicago - 1900

Trev.

[dognose]

ABOUT THE PRODUCTS OF THE JARVIE SHOP

There is nothing quite so effective in home fittings as hand-wrought metal-work, the demand for which is steadily on the increase. The Jarvie shop, whose announcement appears in this issue of The Craftsman, is located in the Fine Arts Building, Chicago. It has won an enviable reputation for this sort of work, and is a reliable place to turn to if in search of decorative and useful things for the home. Bowls, sconces, desk-sets, in fact anything that can be fashioned from brass, copper and silver, may be selected from the large and varied stock at The Jarvie Shop, or you may order special pieces made from your own design. Especially interesting are the Jarvie candlesticks and lanterns, in which there are many new designs. A portfolio may be had by writing The Jarvie Shop.

Source: The Craftsman - September 1906

Trev.

[dognose]

The Jarvie Shop - Chicago - 1905

Trev.

[dognose]

The Shop of Robert Jarvie - Chicago - 1909

Trev.

[dognose]

Further detail of Robert Jarvie prior to him entering his metal-working career on a full-time basis:



Source: Thirty-Second Annual Report of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission of the State of Illinois - 1903

Trev.

[dognose]

The Jarvie Shop - Chicago - 1905

Trev.

[dognose]

ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO



ARTIST'S GUILD



Source: American Art Directory - 1917

Trev.

[dognose]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Summer Session June 23 to August 2, 1913


FACULTY OF THE SUMMER SESSION

Hans Jauchen, Instructor in Art Metal Work in the Summer Session

Graduate, Kunstgewerbe Schule, Hamburg, 1902; apprentice in atelier of Johann Jauchen, Hamburg, 1896—99; designer, modeler, repousser and chaser with Royal Silversmiths and Goldsmiths in Fulda, Kiel and Dusseldorf, 1902-05; Instructor in Arts and Crafts, studio of Emil Jauchen, Hamburg, 1905-06; special commission under direction of Starkie Gardner, metal worker to the King and Curator of South Kensington Museum, London, 1908-09; manager Jarvie Art Metal Works, Chicago, 1909-10; independent craftsman, 1910-12; manager of Art Department, San Francisco Metal Stamping and Corrugating Company, 1913.

Source: University of California Bulletin - 1913

Trev.

[dognose]

The Jarvie Shop - Chicago - 1905

The 'BETA'.

Trev.

[dognose]

A SYMBOLIC BOOK BINDING IN CARVED AND BEATEN SILVER





This book, a product of the craft shop of Robert Jarvie, in Chicago, illustrates those excellent values in craftsmanship which result from the faithful and masterly execution of an intelligent and well-studied design.

The book was a testimonial presented to President James Burrill Angell on his retirement from the University of Michigan by the students and faculty. The address was lettered and illuminated on vellum by Elizabeth Truman, and bound in dark-blue French levant leather by Sarah Ellet Kendall. The silver cover was designed by George Grant Elmslie, and executed in the Jarvie shop.

The foliage is described as representing the tree of life, the lower central disc showing the date of Dr. Angell's birth, from which grow two branches, the right representing, in its three subsidiary discs, or fruits, the events of his diplomatic career, and the left his various academic honors, both culminating in the shield of the University of Michigan at the upper center of the design. The back is of a purely conventional nature.

The whole represents what may be seriously considered as the best form of craftsmanship, embracing as it does a definite purpose which is graphically and symbolically expressed in the design, and presenting qualities of intrinsic worth in the materials used, abstract beauty in the careful and painstaking craftsmanship.

Source: Arts & Decoration - January 1912

Trev.