Frederick Walter Davis
Cigar Box with Ancient-Style Mask (Caja de cigarros con máscara de estilo antiguo)circa 1935-1950

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Frederick Walter Davis
United States, active Mexico, 1878-1961
Title: Cigar Box with Ancient-Style Mask (Caja de cigarros con máscara de estilo antiguo)
Date Made: circa 1935-1950
Medium: Silver, carved jade
Dimensions: 4 7/8 × 7 1/8 × 1 1/2 in. (12.38 × 18.1 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of James Black and James Tracy from the Collection of Vincent Price and Mary Grant Price
Accession Number: M.2013.9.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This silver box with a carved jade head was bought for the actor Vincent Price (1911–1993) by his wife, Mary Grant Price (1917–2002), in the 1950s. The Prices traveled extensively throughout Mexico and acquired many fine examples of Mexican modernist silver. Although this head is a modern interpretation of an ancient carving, it was not uncommon for Frederick Walter Davis (and later William Spratling) to incorporate small pre-Conquest heads and other ancient materials into their designs (see, e.g., M.2018.68.63).

Ilona Katzew

2013

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Frederick Walter Davis
United States, active Mexico, 1878-1961
Title: Cigar Box with Ancient-Style Mask (Caja de cigarros con máscara de estilo antiguo)
Date Made: circa 1935-1950
Medium: Silver, carved jade
Dimensions: 4 7/8 × 7 1/8 × 1 1/2 in. (12.38 × 18.1 × 3.81 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of James Black and James Tracy from the Collection of Vincent Price and Mary Grant Price
Accession Number: M.2013.9.1
Classification: Furnishings
Collecting Area: Latin American Art
Curatorial Notes: This silver box with a carved jade head was bought for the actor Vincent Price (1911–1993) by his wife, Mary Grant Price (1917–2002), in the 1950s. The Prices traveled extensively throughout Mexico and acquired many fine examples of Mexican modernist silver. Although this head is a modern interpretation of an ancient carving, it was not uncommon for Frederick Walter Davis (and later William Spratling) to incorporate small pre-Conquest heads and other ancient materials into their designs (see, e.g., M.2018.68.63).

Ilona Katzew

2013