Metal Midcentury Wall Art - ID help please ..... ID Confirmed  

Had a contact from a dealer...
Had a contact from a dealer who specializes in MCM metal sculpture and he said it could be early C. Jere, commented they are harder to sell with no signature and offered to buy it.
I have gone through a ton of Jere in my research, obviously when it comes to MCM metal sculpture 80% of it seems to be Jere. But I just don't see it. I've never seen anything Jere has done using orbit shapes like mine, much less cosmic themes.
I'm not ruling it out but my hunch was an artist (could have been Jere I suppose) was given a special request to do a cosmic theme for a client who liked astronomy, science, etc...
I have noticed a lot of dark tarnish on the backs of the larger round pieces with flat rings around them. If there is a signature anywhere on this thing I believe it would be on these surfaces, covered with tarnish. What my problem is that if I clean the tarnish off I can't imagine the signature would come right off too, (if it's there). It seems crazy but I see a lot of metal pieces have painted signatures which is crazy since it seems apt to easily come off.
Anyone with any experience here?

can't offer any info on its origin
but if you are considering selling, I am interested.

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A billion thanks to Tom!!!!!
Oh wow! Thank you for finding that Tom. That has the exact same accent pieces - moons, swirls, stars, etc...e!!! Ok if that's Jere I now believe mine is to due having the exact whirligigs on it .Do you have a source or link available to that sculpture Tom?
Thanks so much for your advice (I will not clean it) and for finding that other piece. I have spent hours going thru photos of metal sculpture and never found anything as close as that - I need your googlefu or just plain old fab research skills. Seriously I cannot thank you enough!!!!
(ps this was a birthday gift so its not for sale just wanted to know more about a piece that now is a centerpiece in my living room)

Oh as for origins I know it...
Oh as for origins I know it came from Maine - so northeast US. It was an eBay find the seller knew nothing about it and was actually asking people on the sale page if they could offer any info.
I'm so glad they didn't know it was Jere because it would have cost a lot more and I'm sure putting Jere in the sale post would have attracted far more buyers for it.
Now it makes sense why the dealer I contacted offered to buy it. I'll give him credit he did say it "could" be early Jere but I know think he KNEW it was since that's the majority of what he sells.

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Looks fairly recent to me.
Have you contacted Artisan House? They can tell you whether they made it.
Artisan House
203 563-0017customerservice@artisanhouse.com

No, def not recent piece
No the amount of old dust, Patina, gunk and age on the metal dates it. The person I got it from was pretty upfront and reputable - got it from an estate of an older deceased person that had lots of stuff from the 50's and 60's era. Until I got a match to the othe Jere piece I wasn't sure of the age but was positive it was at least 30 plus years old. Having dealt with far to many vintage pieces there just no mistaking the heavy dust and gummy stuff between the crevices that builds up after decades in a home. The patina and heavy tarnish on some pieces, ESP the backs where no one bothered to clean or polish regularly also matches up to decades of existence.
I must say the piece posted above that is similar to mine looks far shinnier and newer - maybe they just had the piece cleaned and polished. The spheres and accents on mine are almost a copper color - but that is the patina. Some of the spheres have speckling from the finish deteriorating - a bit of rust here and there too.
I did find the artisan house website when doing earlier research but until I saw the above piece I didn't want to bother. Now that I'm pretty sure it is a Jere piece I'm going to be contacting them to try for some verification. I will post the response - if any.
My understanding is the current artisan house bought the rights to many Jere pieces - it seems mostly to produce his more popular, oft seen pieces like the sea anemones, birds, sunbursts, etc.... I just hope they would have information about pieces that span his entire career, not just certain big sellers. We shall see....
Thanks again for the help!

Artisan House IS "Curtis Jere".
The company is no longer owned by Curtis and Jerry, of course, but it didn't have to buy the rights to any designs; the company's always owned them.

Artisan house
has been owned by the Chinese since around 2003. Therefore, the signed pieces from the earlier years have retained their value, but the later ones, well, not so much.

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"26-Jul-06
Curtis Jere' is a compound non-de-plume for a design group formed and directed by Jerry Fels for their company Artisan House . The company was formed by Jerry Fels and Curtis Freiler and has since been sold and resold.
21-Dec-07
First......
There is NO C Jere'...
It's the fictional name signed on the art produced by Artisan House."
It is a bunch of junk mass produced.
I am always fascinated by the hype..some elder pieces look good in a
Palm spring pool-side setting, clever (ish) or Miami. huh?
Don't get it. Collectors/sellers love it because of great cash return for
easy money.
Enjoy, but i don't get it at all. Not interesting, not art, just kitch.
Artesian house still signs them C jere.
"Last Summer"
Like the feel of balmy ocean breezes and soft sand between the toes, this horizontal beauty is refreshingly rustic, weathered and warmed by a sun-kissed color palette.
Entertainment wall art ~
Artisan House C. Jere Collection
http://www.artisanhouseonline.com/

An opinion
I'm well aware c. Jere is a duo and produced jewelry before metal art, it's just gets to be a pain to find the right pronouns when discussing it.
Some people buy old pieces because they actually like them and not for the cash value. We love our piece very much and we are glad it was produced in the era we collect furniture from. I love atomic orbits and other cosmic themes - if done well - and this piece IMO is just that.
I do agree most of the stuff I see "artisan house" producing today is godawful crap. I've never been a big fan of C Jere stuff but there are several exceptions - I've like the sea annomeona pieces, some of the abstract line pieces. I don't care for the seagull and bridge stuff. It seems his early pieces hold more appeal for me than later stuff. It seems by the mid-70's c jere became a huge mass production line for pieces. ( I remember my mom having the seagulls on sunburst one - and they were everywhere.)
I didnt think my piece was jere but I'm just glad to find out who did it. I was afraid it would become yet another frustrating MCM mystery - and i already have enough of those. I love the piece and it's by far the best piece I've ever seen produced under the c jere name - but I am prejudiced. I would love to commission a similar piece based on a carbon atom to have on the other wall but until that happens I'll be quite happy with Jere piece alone.
I'd like to add that Charles and Ray Eames also aimed to produce affordable pieces of nicely designed furniture for the great unwashed masses. Knoll and HM were also "mass produced" and that doesn't seem to bother most of us a whit. ( in fact thank god they were otherwise there stuff would only be in Museums and the homes of the very rich instead of something we can afford to own and collect in our own homes.)
( also I did write to artisan house this evening to see if they could verify the piece as being produced by jere or not - will update if I hear back.)

Riki
"Owned by the Chinese since 2003"? Says who?
The current owner is John Shilling, an American.