Heintz Art Metal – Sterling on Bronze

This inkwell was made in the Heintz Art Metal Shop in Buffalo, New York. It is rounded, almost spherical in shape with a rounded lid. The inkwell is decorated with a silver overlay in an organic, vine-like pattern. The underside is marked “Sterling on Bronze”, Pat. Aug. 27,12, with the H.A.M.S. diamond shape. (Heintz Art Metal Shop). It is missing its insert.

Starting in 1903, Otto Heintz took over the Art Crafts Shop in Buffalo, changed its name to the Heintz Art Metal Shop and began producing an extensive line of vases, bowls, desk accessories, picture frames, jewelry, bookends and a limited number of monumental table lamps. Otto Heintz turned to the lathe rather than the hammer to produce his unique line of metalware. And rather than copper, his craftsmen attached pieces of bronze to the lathe and ‘spun’ each form by pressing the thin bronze sheet against spinning forms with wooden mallets.

Heintz Art Metal developed a variety of unique patinas, including Verde, a dark green finish favored by many Arts & Crafts collectors. Heintz also invented and patented a method of attaching decorative sterling silver overlay to each piece without the use of messy solder. The silver overlay is decidedly Arts & Crafts in the handcraftsmanship it required and the depiction of natural motifs, such as flowers, plants, leaves, birds and branches.