This three-piece sterling suite, circa 1930, was produced by the legendary Pasadena silversmith Clemens Friedell. The pieces will be offered Sunday at A.N. Abell Auction Co., in a special quarterly fine art and antique sale.
According to Michael J. Weller, owner of San Francisco's Argentum Antiques and a leading scholar of California silversmiths, Friedell's silver chronicled the entire Southern California lifestyle of the early 20th century. He arrived in Pasadena in 1911 and was noticed very quickly, in part because of his gift for self promotion. In 1912, he was commissioned to produce his first of many trophies for the annual New Year's Day Rose Parade. Friedell went on to become one of the most talented silversmiths of his generation. He could craft whatever a customer ordered and could depict everything from a California poppy to a polo pony with the greatest of accuracy. Stylistically, he was one of the early pioneers of the California Craftsman movement.
