'Bowl #7', square concave bowl, silver, designed and made by Carla Nuis, Maastricht, 2000

Square concave bowl, dipping in the centre and flaring upwards around the edges. The entire surface is pierced with a succession of scrolls and curlicues within a series of interlinking, teardrop frames. The pattern is derived from that found on 17th century, Italian Baroque velvets. This bowl is one of a series. Bowl #6 is similar except that the pierced pattern is in reverse to that of bowl #7; bowl #6 being the positive version while bowl #7 is the negative.

Purchased through the Yorke Radleigh Fund

Artist's statement, March 1, 2003:

These (bowls) are fragile dishes in which I seek to combine age old crafts and classical forms in a new way, so as to freeze age old styles in traditional materials. The "bowls" are inspired by 17th and 18th century, Baroque and Rococo designs in ornaments - such as on classical ceilings and buildings - and decorations - for example on velvet wallpaper and brocade. These I repeat until an interesting pattern emerges. I materialise these patterns by sawing parts from this silver sheet. This implies choice. It led to two dishes for each design: one positive and one negative, that are each other's counterpart. The dishes are each hand-sawed out of a 0.935 dz. silver plate, that was subsequently forged into shape. They are 25x25x6 cm. Each dish took over 100 hours of manual labour.

Reason For Production: Exhibition

The inspiration for this decorative bowl was a piece of 17th-century Baroque Italian velvet. The Dutch silversmith Carla Nuis (b. 1970), who designed and made this piece, transformed it into a fretwork pattern on a piece of silver sheet. This bowl is a fine example of the resurgence of interest in rich patterns on silver among contemporary silversmiths.

M.45-2003