Frank L. Koralewsky (American, born Germany, 1872–1941)
Lock
INV-2886
Frank L. Koralewsky (American, born Germany, 1872–1941)1911
Arts and Crafts MovementAmerican Arts and Crafts Movementmetalworkamerican decorative arts
Date
1911
Medium
Iron with inlays of gold, silver, bronze, and copper on wood base
Dimensions
50.8 × 50.8 × 20.3 cm (20 × 20 × 8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mr. Richard T. Crane
Frank L. Koralewsky served as a traditional ironworker’s apprentice in his native north-German town of Stralsund. After obtaining journeyman status, he worked in various German shops before immigrating to Boston in the mid- 1890s. By 1906 he was a member of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts, specializing in locksmithing and hardware. This extremely intricate lock, which took seven years to complete, exemplifies the early-20th-century taste for sentimental medievalism and represents the pinnacle of the metalworking tradition at the turn of the 20th century. Exhibited at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, where it won a gold medal, the lock illustrates Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
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