Box

Eda Dixon was an accomplished and influential American silversmith and jeweler. After studying with James Herbert Winn (1866-1940), a prominent jeweler and metalsmith who taught at the Art Craft Institute in Chicago, and the eminent London enamellist Alexander Fischer, Dixon established herself as a highly inventive and productive figure in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Her career is a testament to the opportunities the fields of Arts and Crafts metalwork and jewelry provided for women, and she was a driving force among the ranks of accomplished female artists who shaped taste and artistic expression during the early years of the twentieth century. Recently discovered scrapbooks, ledgers, and photographic archives document Eda’s extensive and varied oeuvre; however, she is little known today because she does not appear to have marked her silver and jewelry. This box, an exquisitely wrought masterpiece created in collaboration with her husband Laurence Dixon, is the only known marked example of her work. Its Asian-inspired design and masterfully pierced, enameled, and gem-set ornament attest to the creative vision and technical virtuosity that characterized her work. The passage engraved within the foliate frame of the box’s lid reads, "AND AT THE RAINBOW’S FOOT LAY SURELY GOLD," a line from the sonnet Aloof by Chritina Rossetti (1830-1894), poet and sister of Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). Associations with such progressive artists and poets underscore the milieu in which Eda and Laurence, as well as their friends and patrons, lived and worked. The Dixon scrapbooks, ledgers, and photographic archives can be accessed through Watson Library’s Digital Collection.