Designer: Ben Siebel (1918 – 1985)

Item: Brass Wall Sconces

Manufactured by: Jenfred-Ware by Levco Mfg.

Country of origin: United States

Year made: Early 1950s

Materials: Brass plating over a magnesium, copper-zinc and aluminum base with an original baked on lacquer finish

Dimensions: 14 ½” x 2 ¾” x 3”

Condition: Excellent and appear barely if ever used.

Description: This is a very rare set of wall sconces by Ben Siebel for Jenfred-Ware, and only the second pair of this design we have ever seen.  They retain their original labels as shown. Siebel’s Jenfred-Ware objects in this brass finish material are rarely found in this excellent condition as the finish is often tarnished, flaked and was easily damaged.  His other designs for bookends, ashtrays and candlesticks for Jenfred-Ware in this material are fairly ubiquitous and easily found.

Siebel was born in Newark, New Jersey but raised in Manhattan, where his mother had a shop in Greenwich Village selling her own jewelry and fashion designs. Seibel began pursuing a degree in architecture at Columbia University after studying with noted American modernist artists Louis Schanker and Leo Amino. After putting his education on hold for a three-and-a-half year term of service in the Air Force, Seibel returned to New York City in 1945, enrolling at Pratt Institute with a concentration in industrial design. He never completed his degree, instead started a studio that he maintained alongside a small staff until his death in 1985.  The available literature indicates that Siebel’s designs for Jenfred-Ware were first introduced in 1948 and utilized various metal plated finishes over a magnesium, copper-zinc and aluminum base metal.