Lot 136
PHOEBE ANNA TRAQUAIR (1852-1936)
'THE KISS', CIRCA 1903
Auction: 19 August 2013 at 12:00 BST
Description
enamel with foil on copper, signed with monogram verso and with inscription THE KISS, the whole set within later silver mount by Linda Margaret Hodge, bears maker's marks LMH, hallmarked Edinburgh 1979
Dimensions
enamel 4.5cm across, the whole, 5.5cm across
Footnote
Literature: Cumming, Elizabeth, 'Phoebe Anna Traquair', 1993, p. 75
Cumming, Elizabeth 'Phoebe Anna Traquair', Edinburgh 2011, pp.72-75, illus. no. 47
Note: Traquair started working in enamels whilst staying at Castlecraig in Peeblesshire, the home of Lord and Lady Gibson Carmichael. Lady Carmichael had studied with Alexander Fisher, and was already creating works in the art and had an enamelling workshop. Initially her work was based on the historic enamels she had studied in the Carmichaels extensive collections, and indeed she collaborated with Carmichaels on several works. By 1902 she had begun to produce enamels in her own style, and had become skilled at handling minerals and firing temperatures, attempting a wide range of work and mixing the spiritual and secular. The present lot, dated to around 1903, share its subject with a triptych of the same date, and demonstrates Traquair's mastery of the medium, with its embossed surface, glowing colours and finely painted surface. Traquair exhibited twenty-two enamels at the Arts & Crafts exhibition in London, including a pendant of similar form to the present lot, commissioned by Sir Robert Lorimer, with whom she would collaborate on a number of projects in later years.