Planished silver centerpiece bowl

Clemens Friedell's hand-wrought silver provides an important link between the opulence of late nineteenth-century silverware and the eclecticism of early twentieth-century design. Born near New Orleans, Friedell moved to Vienna with his Austrian-born parents in 1875. While in his teens, he served a traditional seven-year apprenticeship under a classically trained Viennese silversmith, who helped him develop extraordinary metalworking skills. Returning to this country in 1892, he worked in the Martele division of the Gorham Manufacturing Company from 1901 to 1907. He moved to Los Angeles in 1910 and to Pasadena in 1911, where he became one of the area's most highly regarded craftspeople.