Set of 4 MCM ENAMEL OVER COPPER ART BOWL SIGNED by LEON STATHAM

Description

Up for sale is this rare set of four bowls. Each bowl is of a different coloration and size. They are in excellent condition sans some slight crazing in the
bronze bowl. Each bowl is signed Statham and have their original cork feet. I have had these bowls for several years, I purchased them at an estate sale in Sister Bay Wisconsin (Door County)
The bowls are as follows: Yellow approx. 8", Bronze approx. 7", Green approx. 5.75" and Red approx. 4.5"
Leon Statham
1913 - 1986
Leon Statham is primarily known for the elegant enamel on copper bowls, plates and plaques he created from the late 1950s to the mid 1970s. His work includes a variety of forms ranging from flat panels to hand-wrought bowls to free form organic vessels.  The bowls tend to echo the rich glazes of Asian ceramics, often in muted tones with relatively spare surface decoration.  However, he did not shy away from using bold and saturated colors.  His free-form pieces, particularly larger plates and vessels, are often decorated with natural motifs, such as fish and butterflies.  He also created plaques, which he usually framed, that represented abstract designs and landscapes, as well as the occasional religious subject.
Leon Statham was born in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1913.  After serving in the military from 1941 to 1946, he wrote a novel called
Welcome Darkness
that was published in 1950. While it was his third novel, it was the first to be commercially published.  The book recounts the harrowing story of seven men who struggle to survive after their plane crashes in the Philippine jungles during World War II.  When it first appeared, the novel received mixed reviews, a
New York Times
critic calling it “a powerful and peculiar novel.”  However, the year following its publication, Statham was awarded a ,000 prize by the Friends of American Writers, a Chicago-based women’s organization formed to encourage promising authors in the Midwest.
About 1950, Statham moved with his wife Jessica to Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin where they taught themselves to enamel.   By 1955 they had moved to Ephraim, Wisconsin, a historic town located on the northern shores of Lake Michigan.  They set up a small, family-run enameling business whose success relied on the tourist trade.  Their daughter Valerie assisted in the workshop, often signing her name, Collignon, along with that of her father.
Statham also received numerous ecclesiastical commissions including a 1966 commission to produce ceremonial objects – a cruet, a pyx, a bowl and a tray – for St. Agnes-by-the-Lake Episcopal Church in Algoma, Wisconsin.