Trailing Arbutus Block
Artist
Paul J. Stankard
(American, born 1943)
Date1989
CultureAmerican
MediumLampworked glass, crystal, laminated green plate glass, cut and polished glass
ClassificationGlass
ProvenanceWarren J. and Margot Coville, n.d. - 2015; donated to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 2015 - present
Credit LineGift of Warren and Margot Coville, 2015
Object numberSN11429.48
In the early years of the American Studio Glass Movement, glassmaking experienced a revival in individual artist’s studios as opposed to commercial settings. As a skilled flameworker of scientific, industrial glass, Paul Stankard began making paperweights in 1969 because botanical motifs intrigued him. With his detailed observation of living plants in the woods near his home, Stankard painstakingly reproduces the entire plant system, from flower buds, stalks and leaves to root systems. Considered one of the world’s greatest paperweight makers, his mastery of traditional techniques goes beyond the height of artistry in paperweights made in 19th-century France. Breaking from the rounded shapes of classic paperweights, Stankard introduced rectilinear vertical forms, which he called cloistered botanicals, and effectively used dark backgrounds, as seen in this intricately rendered example.
On View
On viewLocation
Dimensions3 9/16 × 2 9/16 × 2 3/4 in. (9 × 6.5 × 7 cm)- Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion, 1st floor, gallery, wall case 6
early 20th Century