Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Perth, WA, Australia

Biography

Silversmith, woodworker, leatherworker and teacher Herbert Kitchener Currie, known as Kitch, was born in Perth in 1915. He was the younger brother of Betsey Currie, who lived with James W. R. Linton. Currie was educated at Wesley Colleges, South Perth, and Melbourne, returning to Perth at the end of 1930. He enrolled the next year at the Perth Technical School. The family lost their fortune in the Depression and in 1932 Currie went to work for a footwear importer, spending his evenings at the newly opened Linton Institute of Art. He worked for about four or five hours a week for Linton, learning his silversmithing skills “on the job”. When Linton’s wife moved interstate in 1938 and he and Betsey moved to Hovea, Western Australia, Currie joined a brother working for a gold-refining plant in Wiluna, returning to the metropolitan area after the war and again assisting Linton until his death in 1947. Currie then lived with his sister at Hovea, working as a craftsman in wood and leather until 1957 when the Hovea property was sold and they moved to Greenmount, Western Australia. There he took up silversmithing and copper work again. In 1964, Currie joined the Education Department as a lecturer in the Art Studies course at Fremantle Technical College, Fremantle, Western Australia. This legitimised his standing and gave him time to experiment. A measure of interest in the community and the success of the silversmithing courses can be gauged by the student numbers in one venue alone. When Currie commenced there were nineteen students. When he resigned and Terry Walsh took over there were one hundred sixty. The contact with the students was an excellent commissioning network and Currie was engaged to make jewellery as wedding and twenty-fifth wedding anniversary presents and for other special occasions. Currie’s mature style developed after an extensive tour of Europe and Morocco in 1974-75 when an Australia Council grant enabled him to spend three months studying this jewellery. The richness of the Arab work is reflected in a number of his subsequent pieces. It is seen in a large, opal-set bracelet, commissioned soon after he encountered the work. It is also seen in one of his loveliest pieces, a peacock necklace made in 1973 now in the Art Gallery of Western Australia. This has fanning scrolls of silver set with opal. Currie’s major works were made in the 1960s and 1970s, among them a number of ecclesiastical commissions and official gifts for the Department of External Affairs. These gifts were mostly serving-spoons and sets of teaspoons. Curry spoons made in 1962 are typical and show the influence of J. W. R. Linton’s work. This is not surprising as Currie had considerable reverence for Linton whose spoons were household equipment and readily available as models. Currie uses three motifs: repeatedly scrolled lines manipulated by pliers, a beaded wire filed by hand from square section and solid fan-like finials, individually carved, which he is adept at making quickly and uses as “finishers”. Currie has an attraction to undulating and scrolling line, and considers he has a natural ability to place these artistically. Currie deliberately kept away from wildflower and other designs used by Jamie Linton and partners, as he did not want to be in competition with men who made their living from their craft. This has meant that in restricting himself to the three basic motifs he has developed an easily recognisable style of his own, based primarily on scrolling wirework and inspired by his mentor J. W. R. Linton. In the late 1980s Currie made an imposing silver and lapis lazuli necklace, with the regular geometry of the stones contrasted against the scrolling detail of the filigree wire. The combination of geometry with scrolling in the smaller pieces is carried into larger works. For instance, Currie made a large copper fire screen and table for chemist Eula Gray in 1973. This is in much the same spirit as the peacock and triangle necklaces with the geometric cartouches, in which both the screen and pendant are contained, giving an air of crispness to the designs. The fire screen is massive with the scrolls constructed from copper rod especially sheared from a heavy-gauge sheet before being fitted into an industrially made steel frame manufactured by Geoff Woodland. Many commissions came through social contacts. One such was the 1973-74 contract for St Cuthbert’s Church in Darlington: a chalice and paten, pyx, lavabo, and a sanctuary lamp. This suite is heavily hammered over mechanically-spun shapes, resulting in an ambience quite false to the method of fabrication The commissioning priest, Father Andrew Donald, a high-church vicar, was very specific about detail. For instance no engraving was to be visible. Currie presented careful renderings of a cup based, it would appear, on Linton sketches in his possession. As an atheist he had little interest in the church dogma. The wide-bowled chalice is a modern variant of the twelfth-century Icelandic Cup in the Victoria and Albert Museum and although a copy is in the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Currie may never have seen this. The chalice, paten, pyx (wafer box) and lavabo (basin) are all set with enamelled copper domes in the manner used on occasion by Linton and Gordon Holdsworth. Twisted wire and small, carved, flower motifs complete the decoration. Later cutlery developed the scrolling-wire theme further and introduced a reeded effect seen in much of Jamie Linton’s work. A 1987 ladle is one of Currie’s most stylish pieces. This is reminiscent of Jamie Linton at his best. Another recent spoon, “Ram’s head and Wheat”, 1987, is also extremely stylish. Currie marked his work with: “KC” (in a square cartouche), “STG. SIL” (in a rectangular cartouche), and a swan mark (also in a separate square cartouche). Currie ceased work in 1988 when failing eyesight, due to cataracts, interfered with his ability to see. Operations undertaken in 1990 enabled him to commence work again in 1991 and he continued almost until his death in 2002. Writers: Dr Dorothy Erickson Date written: 2010 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1915

Summary

Herbert Kitchener Currie was born in 1915. He was a silversmith, woodworker, leatherworker and teacher. Currie ceased work in 1988 when failing eyesight, due to cataracts, interfered with his ability to see. Operations undertaken in 1990 enabled him to commence work again in 1991 and he continued almost until his death in 2002.

Gender

Male

Died

2002

Age at death

87