Designer: Jonathan Bonner (1947 - 2024)

Item: Alligator Candlesticks

Manufactured by: Jonathan Bonner

Country of origin: United States

Year made: Circa 1986

Materials: Copper with verdigris patination

Dimensions:  Each 3 ½” x 13 ½” x 3”

Condition: Excellent with some wax residue from actual use.

Description: Here is a pair of candlesticks designed by American artist and sculptor Jonathan Bonner (b.1947) of abstracted alligators, made from patinated copper tubing.  Each is signed as shown.  Bonner's candlestick designs in the abstracted shapes of alligators, snakes, birds and rhinos are becoming increasingly sought after.  As a fine artist Bonner has crossed genres with his design work, including his collaborations with important designer Judy Kensley McKie on furniture pieces. 

Bonner was a Providence, Rhode Island based fine artist who worked in sculpture, installation and works on paper and who had more than 40 solo exhibitions in his lifetime. His works are in public and private collections throughout the country, including the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Detroit Museum of Art and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute.  His work includes many large-scale outdoor site-specific commissions.