Byzantine Dome Coin Bank
c. 1938
Medium
watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 21.5 x 29.1 cm (8 7/16 x 11 7/16 in.) Original IAD Object: 3 3/4" high, 2 7/16" wide; 1 7/8" deep
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.8501
Art Historical Context
This delicate rendering captures a charming coin bank shaped like a miniature Byzantine dome, standing just 3¾ inches tall. Created around 1938 by William O. Fletcher, the work belongs to Index of American Design, a New Deal initiative that employed artists to document everyday American decorative objects for posterity. The bank’s rounded, onion-shaped form and intricate surface details evoke the architectural splendor of Eastern Orthodox churches, translated here into a playful savings vessel likely produced in the early twentieth century. Fletcher rendered the object with watercolor, gouach...
About the Artist
William O. Fletcher
William O. Fletcher is represented in museum collections by a body of work that demonstrates consistent artistic output and the kind of sustained production that distinguishes professional or semi-professional practice from occasional art-making. While his biographical details remain unrecorded in the sources readily available to researchers — his dates, nationality, and training all currently unk...