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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
Vanity set: hand mirror and hair brush
Designed by: Elsa Tennhardt (American, born in Germany, 1889–1980)
Manufactured by: E. & J. Bass (active 1890–about 1930)
Manufactured by: E. & J. Bass (active 1890–about 1930)
designed 1928; made ca. 1928-30
Object Place: New York, New York
Medium/Technique
Silverplate, glass, boar bristles
Credit Line
The John Axelrod Collection
Accession Number2014.1290.1-2
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsSilver
This hairbrush and hand mirror are each composed of three stacked traingles of varying sizes. The highly geometric, sharp-edged design to both French Cubism and Russian Constructivist styles. LIttle is known about Elsa Tennhardt, the designer of this vanity set, except that she was born in Germany and studied painting there before immigrating to the United States in 1911. Later, she taught painting at New York University.
DescriptionThe silverplated mirror and brush are comprised of handle and head. The flat handle on both is formed by three stacked open isosceles triangles that increase in width from tip to head. The triangular heads of both the mirror and the brush are set flush within the handle's top triangle. The head of the mirror is equilateral; that of the brush is isosceles. On the top side, both are embellished along two edges with a pattern of graduated triangles set in relief. The brush's boar bristles and the mirror's plain reflective glass fill the triangular head on the reverse side.
ProvenanceBy 2007, owned by Gallerie Deco Collect, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada; March 31, 2007, sold to John Axelrod, Boston, Massachusetts; 2008, promised gift of John Axelrod to the Museum; 2014, gift of Axelrod to the MFA. (Accession date: October 29, 2014)