If the story of Studio Glass is a tale of liberation from the factory, then the life and career of designer and sculptor Andries Dirk Copier (1901—1991) is a case-study of this transition. A lavish newly-published book by German publisher Arnoldsche titled Andries Dirk Copier: Ideas in Glass, Unica and More chronicles the experimental work of a designer for Leerdam Glass Factory in the Netherlands who pushed aesthetic and technical boundaries first within the factory system, and later in collaborations with the emerging Studio Glass artists who were reshaping the field.
Decades before Harvey Littleton’s landmark 1962 workshops freed hot glass from the factory, anyone interested in creating objects from blown glass needed to be affiliated with an industrial glass factory [there were rare exceptions such as the French artist Jean Sala (1895-1975) and Erwin Eisch, both of whom had a major influence on Littleton].
Copier, the son of a glassblower, was a fast-rising designer rather than a fabricator at the Leerdam Glass Factory. His talents were spotted quickly and he swiftly rose to become the company’s chief designer. While he was responsible for many of the company’s most commercially successful designs from the 1920s onwards, he was also a true innovator in the material. This interest in breaking new ground led him to immediately develop a separate line of limited-production works that were experimental collaborations with the factory’s glassblowers. These were sold under the “Leerdam Unica” name.
Writing in the introduction, Dieter Enke estimates that there were 18,000 Unica pieces made during Copier’s 50-year tenure at Leerdam. Copier’s first production design, “Smeerwotel” was produced in 1923. It is telling that his first Leerdam Unica piece was a vase made that same year. Copier continued creating new designs until his retirement in 1978. After he left Leerdam, Copier continued to create an estimated 4,000 works that he called “Autonomous Glass.” The book reproduces 60 Unica pieces, and 25 Autonomous works that are highly sculptural and often made in collaboration with glassmakers in Murano, Novy Bor, and at Ann Wolff‘s private studio in Sweden. Fittingly, Copier even made work at Harvey Littleton’s private studio in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.
Beautifully printed in Germany and with appendices with signature examples and an extensive bibliography, this book is a definitive work of importance for any collector of European art glass or Studio Glass.
- Title: Andries Dirk Copier: Ideas in Glass. Unica and More
- Author: Dieter Enke
- Price: $70 U.S.
- Hardcover: 200 pages
- Publisher: Arnoldsche (February 16, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 3897902990
- ISBN-13: 978-3897902992