DOI issue:
No. 263 (February 1915)
DOI article:Smith, Hamilton T.: Harold Stabler: Worker in metals and enamels
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21212#0046
Harold Stabler s Metal-work and Enamels
PRESENTATION CUP. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED
FOR THE SADDLERS’ COMPANY BY HAROLD STABLER
charming statuettes in pottery and other materials
there is not space to give an adequate account in
this article, but it is sufficient to say that the work
■of each of them owes not a little to the other.
As an example of this it may be mentioned that
the little pendants shown in the coloured plate
were executed from Mrs. Stabler’s designs.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Stabler served
his apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker and wood-
carver, spending seven years at this craft in
Westmorland, where he was born. After taking
up metal-work he was associated with Mr. Llewellyn
Rathbone in Liverpool and came with him to
London. He has been for some years Head of
the Art Department at the Sir John Cass Institute
and is also Instructor of metal-work, jewellery and
enamelling at the Royal College of Art, in succes-
sion to Mr. Henry Wilson.
It would be difficult to find an artist whose work
in its various aspects typifies more completely the
40
modern spirit at its best than that of Harold
Stabler—eager and adventurous but not divorced
from traditional methods: attractive and debonair,
yet with a wholesome saltness which saves it from
cloying. The vigorous temperament of the man
is s hown by the vitality he imparts to all his work
and by the ease and sureness with which he
attacks problems of widely different kinds. The
masters of the Renaissance were at once gold-
smiths, sculptors and painters, equally efficient in
either capacity, whereas the art-workers of our
grandfathers’ days, excepting that lone giant Alfred
Stevens, appear to have degenerated into polite
dilettanti when they ventured beyond the con-
fines of one branch of their craft. Why this should
have been so it is not easy to decide, but, what-
ever the reasons, we of th'e twentieth century, with
men like Stabler working in our midst, may take
heart of grace and congratulate ourselves that we
live in more hopeful days. H. T. S.
TABLE CENTRE PIECE IN SILVER AND ENAMEL.
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED FO'R THE OFFICERS’ MESS
OF THE WELSH REGIMENT BY HAROLD STABLER
PRESENTATION CUP. DESIGNED AND EXECUTED
FOR THE SADDLERS’ COMPANY BY HAROLD STABLER
charming statuettes in pottery and other materials
there is not space to give an adequate account in
this article, but it is sufficient to say that the work
■of each of them owes not a little to the other.
As an example of this it may be mentioned that
the little pendants shown in the coloured plate
were executed from Mrs. Stabler’s designs.
It is interesting to note that Mr. Stabler served
his apprenticeship as a cabinet-maker and wood-
carver, spending seven years at this craft in
Westmorland, where he was born. After taking
up metal-work he was associated with Mr. Llewellyn
Rathbone in Liverpool and came with him to
London. He has been for some years Head of
the Art Department at the Sir John Cass Institute
and is also Instructor of metal-work, jewellery and
enamelling at the Royal College of Art, in succes-
sion to Mr. Henry Wilson.
It would be difficult to find an artist whose work
in its various aspects typifies more completely the
40
modern spirit at its best than that of Harold
Stabler—eager and adventurous but not divorced
from traditional methods: attractive and debonair,
yet with a wholesome saltness which saves it from
cloying. The vigorous temperament of the man
is s hown by the vitality he imparts to all his work
and by the ease and sureness with which he
attacks problems of widely different kinds. The
masters of the Renaissance were at once gold-
smiths, sculptors and painters, equally efficient in
either capacity, whereas the art-workers of our
grandfathers’ days, excepting that lone giant Alfred
Stevens, appear to have degenerated into polite
dilettanti when they ventured beyond the con-
fines of one branch of their craft. Why this should
have been so it is not easy to decide, but, what-
ever the reasons, we of th'e twentieth century, with
men like Stabler working in our midst, may take
heart of grace and congratulate ourselves that we
live in more hopeful days. H. T. S.
TABLE CENTRE PIECE IN SILVER AND ENAMEL.
DESIGNED AND EXECUTED FO'R THE OFFICERS’ MESS
OF THE WELSH REGIMENT BY HAROLD STABLER