Ruth Gerth

Ruth Gerth attended the Chicago Art Institute and from age 17 had been interested in industrial design. Her most prominent client was Chase Brass and Copper for whom she designed novelties and planned the offices, gift shop, showrooms, and accessory displays in the company’s new offices in the Chase Tower in Manhattan in the 1930s. Additionally, in 1936 she served as the president of the Artist’s Guild, which had been founded in 1920 to promote fair practices for the employment of freelance artists. Together with her husband William Gerth she founded the design firm Gerth and Gerth. The firm was responsible for the design of over 1000 objects, ranging from a radio and an electric man’s razor to a watering can.

Works associated with this person or group

  • Fiesta Pair Of Candlesticks, ca. 1935

    Candelabrum in form of a coiled musical horn with ends terminating at candle holders, resting on a black disk base.

  • Glow Table Lamp, 1931

    Globular base (a), with small circular brown Bakelite switch on side, accepts incandescent bulb; conical shade (b) clips to bulb.