Bookend

Rebecca Cauman’s striking and luminous silver and enamel bookends demonstrate her exceptional skills as a designer, metalsmith, and enamellist. Although Cauman was an active and influential member of Arts and Crafts communities in both Boston and New York, surprisingly few extant examples of her work are known. These bookends offer a distinctive response to British Arts and Crafts metal and enamelwork by such artists as Alexander Fisher and Robert Ashbee as well as the work of fellow Americans, particularly Boston, metalsmiths and enamelists, including Laurin Hovey Martin, Frank Marshall, and Elizabeth Copeland. Examples of this design featuring an enameled orange tree survive in copper; however, these bookends are the only known silver versions.

A silversmith and enameler, Cauman was a leading figure in the American Arts and Crafts movement. With her parents and siblings, Cauman emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1889 and then to Boston in 1896. Beginning in 1922 she was a "Craftsman" in The Society of Arts & Crafts, Boston, and from 1924 on she was a "Master." Cauman worked as a silversmith and enameler at The Handicraft Shop, a studio associated with the Society, from 1922 until 1930. She then moved to New York City, where she continued to sell and exhibit her work. At the Tricennial Exhibition of The Society of Arts & Crafts held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1927, Cauman exhibited seven pieces of silver, including a "Pair of book-ends with enamels," which may be this bookend and its mate.The jury of the Society commended Cauman’s work in both 1926-27 and 1927-28, and in 1927 she also exhibited at The Exposition of Art in Trade at Macy’s. Cauman continued to show her work at exhibitions throughout the 1930s and 1940s while she operated a shop, Cauman Gifts, with her sister Josephine in New York City.