Robin Noscoe silver modernist bowl

Price range: Sold

For sale is this heavy and good sized Robin Noscoe (1918-2002) silver bowl.  The bowl itself is an interesting example of post war British silver with a hand hammered bowl contrasting with a geometric footed base made of a series of triangular pieces of sheet silver forming a star.  The soldering is competent if slightly amateur.

The main interest with this bowl is its maker.  The rarely seen mark is that of Robin Noscoe who was art teacher at Canford School in Dorset from 1949 to 1978 on his retirement.  Noscoe’s pupils included Derek Jarman and Noscoe features across a number of pages in Jarman’s biography by Tony Peake. In that Noscoe is described as “

A spry figure with a distinctive goatee and a shock of unruly hair….A silversmith, potter, furniture maker, painter and keen student of architecture, Noscoe did not value one sphere of artistic activity over another, nor did he pretend that as a teacher he had all the answers. As humble as he was eclectic, he allowed pupils to follow their own enthusiasms….”.

Importantly Peake states that

“Noscoe’s profound influence on Jarman is evidenced  in almost every sphere of Jarman’s work as an adult artist…..”.

It even turns out Noscoe had his own (art) shack where he ran extracurricular classes and that this in turn inspired Jarman’s famous seaside home, Prospect Cottage.

So a somewhat modest bowl but which has the great merit of introducing Robin Noscoe to the roster of post war silversmiths, and possibly one of the most interesting and flamboyant one’s at that.

Maker: Robin Noscoe

Designer: Robin Noscoe

Date : 1962

Marks: RJN, London, date letter “h”

Material: Sterling silver

Condition: Very good

Size: 18.75 cm diameter, 7.5 cm tall

Weight : 375 grams, 13.2 oz