Description

Bookends can be interesting too.  We love the symbolism of these "Sexes" bookends made in 1972: male and female on equal footing, doing the same job, so to speak. Just two years earlier the second wave of feminism was launched.  In August of that year, the 50th anniversary of women's suffrage, women across the United States went on strike to  call attention to the unfinished business of equality.  We've come a long way, but we still have a ways to go.  So place some books between these bookends to remind you of the journey still ahead.

Details

• Gold-painted iron
  
• Signed and dated on female base
• 9" high, 4" wide
  

About the Designer

C. Jeré is the design collaboration of brothers-in-law Jerry Fels and Kurt Freiler.  Freiler, a German immigrant and manufacturing expert with a knack for reinventing the use of tools, met New York City-based artist Fels in the 1940s. Initially partners in a costume jewelry company, the pair launched Artisan House in 1964 to produce "gallery-quality art for the masses.” It quickly became known for its collection of eclectic, decorative wall décor and other objects ranging from the representational to the highly abstract.  Each piece, crafted in California, bore the C. Jeré signature. In a November 2010 article in Elle Decor, Mitchell Owens writes that C. Jeré creations were distributed by Raymor, a cutting edge studio in New York City, and retailed at Gump’s in San Francisco and other high quality retailers. He also reported that "under Freiler's meticulous direction, the workers -- a number of whom were minorities or handicapped -- sheared, crimped, torched, and welded brass, copper, and other metals before coating them with luminous patinas.”  Some of the older techniques -- involving the use of enamels, resins and bronzes, haven’t been been used in decades.  Jerry Fels passed away in 2008 and Kurt Freiler in 2013 and Artisan House has changed hands many times; production of popular mid-century modern designs has moved to China. As proof of C. Jeré’s lasting popularity, Jonathan Adler now produces authorized reproductions of three C. Jeré iconic designs using traditional techniques priced beginning at $1,500.  However, the most sought after pieces continue to be those produced during C. Jeré’s hey day in the late 60s through the 70s.