(2) Heintz Art Metal Shop Antique Decorative Pieces. One is a bronze inkwell with a sterling silver bird on a limb embedded in the lid. Attribution and prior price on paper label on bottom, with shop mark nearby. The other is a hand-hammered copper apple with stem and leaf, with a paper label on the side that reads "Manzana Mediana," roughly meaning "Median (or medium) Apple" in Spanish. Both pieces are unique antiques, and from different aesthetic periods in the company's existence. 

Condition: Commensurate with age. 

Largest Size: 6 x 6 x 8 in. 

In 1902 Otto Heintz (1877-1918) bought a small metalworks in Buffalo, New York and renamed it the Art Crafts Shop. Having been born into a family of manufacturing jewelers he was eager to make a name for himself but determined to branch out into new forms and styles, and began to design make copper items with colored enamel decoration. In 1906 he changed the name to Heintz Art Metal Shop, and shifted to bronze as the base material and sterling silver as ornamentation. Their earlier “hammered” look was replaced by a series of machine-shaped bodies with sophisticated patinas. His patent for applying sterling silver to bronze without solder was granted on August 27th, 1912, and swiftly set him apart from any of the other regional metalworkers. His patinas were noteworthy for their variegated tones and rich iridescence, and his lines consisted of vases and bowls, candlesticks, smoking accessories, trophies, lamps, desk accessories, picture frames, bookends, and jewelry. Heintz died suddenly of a heart attack on January 10th, 1918 at the age of 41, and after a year under his son the head sales manager Fred Smith and some of their major craftsmen left to open their own nearby shop called Smith Metal Arts Co., producing extremely similar works. However, the Heintz Art Metal Shop continued to function for over a decade before becoming an early casualty of the Great Depression on February 11th, 1930, closing its doors for good.

Commensurate with age.