Bowl, silver, by Hanna Gabrielle Hoffmann, Copenhagen, ca. 1896

Silver bowl with parcel-gilding. The bowl rests on four feet cast in a motif of a Japanese fretwork with a cloud motif scrolling among it. The motif is repeated in various forms in the engraved border round the rim, which forms a series of arches beneath each of which is embossed a floral spray on a punched and matted ground.

Purchased for £11-4s-0d from Miss Hanna Hoffmann, 23 St Knudsvei, Copenhagen per Garrard and Co.

Hanna Gabrielle Hoffmann, a sculptor and silver chaser, was born on 9 May, 1858 at Molde in Norway. She studied painting with Vilhelm Kyhn and O.A. Hermansen and from 1885 to 1889 attended the Tegne-og Industriskolen for Kvinder (School of Drawing and Industry for Women) in Copenhagen. In 1888 on the recommendation of August Saabye she was admitted to the Academy, where she studied under Th. Stein and became the first woman sculptor to have passed through the Academy. In 1894 she was awarded a travelling scholarship, and from that year until 1905 lived mostly in Paris. here she executed for parisian firms the works in silver decorated with japonoiserie ornament and stylised floral sprays of which this bowl is an example. The floral sprays are typical of Art Nouveau (see 1615-1900). Later Miss Hoffmann became interested in textiles. In 1912 she studied the technique of dyeing wollen yarn at Mora in Sweden, and later set up a yarn dyeing establishment at Birkerod, where she died on 26 February 1917.

Hanna Gabrielle Hoffmann was a sculptor and silver chaser who studied in Copenhagen and became the first woman sculptor to pass through the Academy there. Between 1894 and 1905 she lived mainly in Paris doing work for Parisian firms in silver decorated with japonaiserie ornament and stylized floral sprays.

470-1897