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Concept
Dirk van Erp
Summary
Dirk Koperlager van Erp (1862–1933) was a Dutch American artisan, coppersmith and metalsmith, best known for lamps made of copper with mica shades, and also for copper vases, bowls and candlesticks. He was a prominent participant in the Arts and Crafts Movement, and was active in Oakland and San Francisco, California.
Dirk van Erp was born January 4, 1862, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, the son of Willem van Erp and Agatha (born Agatha Tjepkema). Dirk's father and other family members were coppersmiths. He emigrated to the United States in 1890, and arrived in San Francisco in 1891, where he went to work for Union Iron Works. In 1892, he married Mary Richardson Marino and their first child, a daughter named Agatha, was born in 1894. In 1898, he traveled to the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, but failed to find his fortune. He returned to work at the Union Iron Works later that same year. The couple's son, William Henry van Erp, was born in April 1901.
In 1900, van Erp moved to Vallejo, California, and got a job as a coppersmith at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard. He began making vases from brass shell casings as gifts to friends. About 1907 van Erp began selling to art galleries.
In 1908, he opened the Art Copper Shop in Oakland, and began exhibiting his work at local Arts and Crafts exhibitions. In 1909, he exhibited more than two dozen pieces at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, a World's Fair held in Seattle, Washington. His shop won a gold medal.
In September 1909 van Erp entered into a partnership with Elizabeth Eleanor D'Arcy Gaw (1868–1944), who had attended the Art Institute of Chicago. She had also studied English Arts and Crafts in London at the Guild and School of Handicraft, founded by Charles Robert Ashbee. They opened a studio at 376 Sutter Street, San Francisco in mid-September. From February 1910 the partnership began marking their wares with a stamped device of a windmill, with their names underneath. The partnership ceased on 30 January 1911; van Erp continued marking with the windmill device, with D'Arcy Gaw's name cut out from the stamp.
Official source
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