Box with Cover

The work of Marie Zimmermann was admired and celebrated during her lifetime, and it continues to attract attention today. Although trained in painting and sculpting, she was primarily a metalworker, who liked to say that she made "everything from tiaras to tombstones." An interesting subset of Zimmermann’s work in metal is a group of small boxes decorated in a variety of ways. The present box, made of silver, is unusual in being of a flat and of nearly square format. Its cover is ornamented with a fluid yet symmetrical pattern of silver wire scrolls, set with turquoise cabochons and freshwater pearls of varying size. Although quite distinct from the work of Zimmermann’s contemporary, the Arts & Crafts metalworker Elizabeth Copeland (1866–1957), this small silver box bears comparison with Copeland’s aesthetic, albeit lacking the enamel so characteristic of Copeland’s work.