Dirk van Erp

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.

Life 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. 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.

Although their partnership lasted less than a year, D'Arcy Gaw exerted a strong and lasting influence on van Erp's design sensibility. He began making lamps to her design during this period, with shades incorporating mica panels.

A silver kettle, stand and burner with ivory or bone accents, designed by van Erp, and made by his son, William Henry van Erp, approximately 1930. On display at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. His career continued until his retirement in 1929. He died in Fairfax, California, on July 18, 1933. His wife, Mary van Erp, died four hours later. His son, William van Erp, continued to operate the shop until 1977, when he died.

Legacy Kenneth Trapp, curator for decorative arts at the Oakland Museum of California summarized van Erp's legacy as follows: "Although most famous for his lamps, many of which are commanding in size and stunning in design, van Erp produced other pieces of such exceptional beauty and strength as to stand unrivaled in American metalwork." Trapp concluded, "Dirk van Erp is widely considered the most important metalsmith of the Arts and Crafts movement"

A copper and mica lamp ca. 1912 - 1915, designed by D'Arcy Gaw and Dirk van Erp, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was donated in 1989 by Charles and Jane Kaufman.

In June, 2002, a copper and mica lamp designed by D'Arcy Gaw and made by Dirk van Erp was sold for US$180,000 at Craftsman Auctions in Lambertville, New Jersey. A van Erp copper vase sold for US$36,000 at the same auction.

On July 28, 2007, appraiser David Rago discussed a Dirk van Erp lamp on a segment of the Public Broadcasting Service series Antiques Roadshow filmed in Louisville, Kentucky. The value of the copper and mica lamp made around 1912 was estimated at US$40,000 to $50,000.

Van Erp's designs are widely emulated in reproductions on the present day market, in a wide range from high quality hand crafted work to lesser quality mass produced lookalikes.