Box

A luminary in the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Frank Gardner Hale was a gifted and prolific jeweler and enamellist. After beginning his career as a graphic designer, he traveled to England in 1906 to study jewelry making, metalsmithing, and enameling at C. R. Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in Chipping Camden. In a diary he kept during his year in England, Hale declared enameling "the most interesting work I ever attempted," and his enamels are distinguished by masterful technique and expressive sensitivity. Upon his return to Boston, he became an influential advocate for Arts and Crafts ideals, mentoring other artisans, lecturing widely, and serving as a catalyst for the revived interest in Medieval enameling techniques in America. The nuanced, painterly quality of the luminous enameled plaque adorning this box reveals Hale’s gifts as a colorist and sophisticated control of his medium. A 1918 article in House Beautiful proclaimed Hale’s enamelwork to be "as unique as it is beautiful."