Free Form Fruit Bowl

1955

Free Form Fruit Bowl, 1955. Frederick A. Miller (American, Cleveland, 1913–2000). Silver; overall: 16.6 x 26.8 x 21 cm (6 9/16 x 10 9/16 x 8 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Silver Jubilee Treasure Fund 1956.116 Frederick Miller was an exceptional silversmith who reintroduced the look, if not the technique, of hand-wrought fabrication to an industry that had fully mechanized its production by the 1950s. His work was often raised from a single disc of silver, beaten until stretched into a biomorphic or free form shape, such as in this fruit bowl. These unique shapes, gracefully lifted onto ebonized feet, were adapted and standardized by larger silver companies without his permission and became statements of modern design in the home. Designers and critics alike admired his work, but because of its expensive and time-consuming manner of production, Miller never achieved the commercial success of his peers whose designs were made by large manufacturers. Fred Miller made this bowl by hand from a single disc of silver.