Harmony Kingdom the Original Box Figurine by Harmony Ball Company
Featuring Treasure Jests, Pot Belly's, Harmony Garden, Jardinia, Luminiart
Harmony Kingdom Collections
Home of the original box figurine. Harmony Kingdom’s unique collections are handmade of crushed marble and resin in the tradition of the English cottage industry. Artistic Director Martin Perry oversees a growing group of talented artists from Wimberley Mills, his headquarters in the picturesque Cotswolds region of England’s West Country. The whimsical animals of the Treasure Jest series, the beautiful blooms of Harmony Garden, and the entire Harmony Kingdom range all display the attention to detail and quirky sense of humor for which Harmony Kingdom’s artists are known.
Browse and purchase from the collections of "Harmony Kingdom Box Figurines"
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About Harmony Kingdom the original box figurine
The Cotswolds - Harmony Kingdom's U.K. headquarters, Wimberley Mills, is privileged to be located in one of the most beautiful rural areas in England, the South Cotswolds. Designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Cotswolds is famous for its honey-colored stone cottages, grand manor houses and impressive churches.The name Cotswolds' refers to rolling hills and broad river valleys. These wooded hills and valleys are especially suitable for grazing, particularly for the native Cotswold sheep, which in medieval times were responsible for the growth of the wool trade. For centuries Cotswold wool was used in more than half of England's cloth and was exported to the continent, bringing great wealth to the wool merchants who donated large sums to the local churches and built themselves magnificent houses.
The
river valleys form the setting for the towns and villages, which nestle
snugly amongst the hills. The market town of Stroud is the central point
where the five valleys meet. Cirencester, the capital of the Cotswolds,
was known during Roman times as Corinium Dubonnorum and was the second largest
city in Roman Britain.Throughout the Cotswolds historic sites are in abundance, as are wildlife activities. The canal that runs alongside Wimberley Mills was once the only means of transport, except for the donkey paths that wind their way down the steep hills. Today the canal acts as an animal reserve. To the south of Wimberley Mills is Bath, the Georgian spa town, rich in Roman history. To the north is Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, close to Warwick Castle, one of the largest medieval castles in the country. To the east is the university town of Oxford, city of dreaming spires.
This setting has had great influence on the creators of Harmony Kingdom. The box figurines share the same reverence towards nature, feeling of antiquity and subtle colouration as the place in which they are created.
Martin and Corinna Perry Martin is the founder and owner of Antiquark Ltd., the company responsible for manufacturing English-made Harmony Kingdom pieces. He is also the artistic director of Martin Perry Studios, a consortium of English carvers who sculpt the figurines. He and his wife Corinna live in the Cotswolds region of England near Wimberley Mills, which houses Antiquark Ltd., Martin Perry Studios, and Harmony International Ltd.
Martin Perry left school at the age of 14 and began his professional career in London as a gofer for his uncle, a film producer. At the age of 22, feeling disenchanted with the film industry, Martin moved to Snowdonia, a mountain region of North Wales. Here he adopted a puppy, the runt of a litter, which seemed to have a natural calling for sheep herding. Since Martin didn't have any idea what he wanted to do with his life, he followed the dog's lead. Martin found a romantic-looking mountain and offered his services as shepherd to the local farmer. Because Martin had no experience he offered to work for free, a proposition the farmer couldn't refuse.
For the next five years Martin and his dog tended sheep in the Welsh mountains, living a decidedly rustic life. Martin had human contact only once a week but kept occupied by walking an average of 20 miles a day. After meeting his future wife Corinna, he knew they could not continue to live such a secluded life, and they moved to the lowlands near Chalford, England, where Martin continued shepherding for a large farm. Martin did not like the rigidity and demands of business farming, yet he stayed with it for four years until he injured his back shearing sheep which ended his shepherding career forever.
While she was growing up, Corinna listened to her mother speak French, German, Italian, and Spanish around the house. Corinna, too, became quite a linguist and eventually a teacher of language. Her father was an illustrator of children's books, an animal lover, and an early conservationist, and her brother is a sculptor. At university Corinna studied art history and travelled extensively, spending a year in India. On a visit to her father in Wales, Corinna met Martin. During Martin's shepherding years near Chalford, Corinna taught English as a second language to corporate and military personnel. After their daughter and son were born, Corinna began working with the children of the village.
It
was Corinna who introduced Martin to the owner of History Craft, a company
that manufactured replicas for art museums around the world. No longer shepherding,
Martin got a job in History Craft's packing department, sending out everything
from large marble statues to tiny Roman coins. Sometimes items were needed
that were not yet made so Martin would make the replicas himself. Martin
says, I can still remember the satisfaction from making that first thing.
I was so pleased with it. I've still got it - it was a rabbit, a replica
of Japanese netsuke [the traditional, intricately carved ivory miniatures
from Japan used primarily as toggles for kimonos.For the next decade, Martin created replicas of museum artworks, including 18th and 19th century netsukes. He developed a special process that gave marble resin an antique, ivory look (later to be further refined and used in Harmony Kingdom box figurines). As he discovered and honed his artistic skills, he began to grow tired of copying other works. Eventually he left History Craft and began sculpting a Westerner's idea of a netsuke.
In 1989 Martin decided to form his own business, Antiquark Ltd., and developed the current finishing process. He cast his new pieces from netsuke and oriental ivory moulds, as well as crafting scrimshaw reproductions. At this time his enterprise was a modest one, selling his pieces mostly to friends and at London flea markets.
Noel Wiggins and Lisa Yashon Also in 1989, two college mates from the U.S. formed their fledgling business, Harmony Ball Company. Noel and Lisa met in 1982 as freshmen at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. They both studied filmmaking and film theory, though Noel's emphasis was on the visual and Lisa's was on writing. They collaborated on many projects, including "Harmony Magazine," a satirical "politically incorrect" underground magazine which led to Noel's dismissal from the university for one year and a write-up in the New York Times.
After graduation Lisa and Noel temporarily went their separate ways. Lisa wrote for a newspaper in New England, while Noel worked as a motorcycle messenger in New York City. By 1988 Noel and Lisa decided it was time to take a break from their routines and embark on a new adventure. That October, Noel headed to Columbus, Ohio in his rusty Toyota Chinook camper to pick up his old friend. The two continued southward into the heart of Mexico with $1500, a couple changes of clothing, and the desire for adventure. They arrived in Patzcuaro, Mexico on November 1 during the holiday "El Dia De Los Muertos" (The Day of the Dead) and fell in love with the playful satirical "calaveras" made by Mexican artisans from clay, wood, paper mache, and sugar to commemorate the dead.
Spurred on by the kindness of the people and the intriguing folk art, Noel and Lisa travelled from region to region in Mexico. After a month, they had filled the camper with unique treasures from tiny villages throughout central and southern Mexico, and returned stateside to sell some of their finds in flea markets in and around New Orleans, Memphis, and Atlanta. At this time, Noel and Lisa decided to form a company, The Here After, which was to be a 24-hour coffee shop, movie house and purveyor of odd little trinkets from around the world. They also decided to repeat the trip the following year.
A
year later, Noel and Lisa travelled to Taxco, the sterling silver capital
of Mexico. Here they found a small handful of marble-sized chiming balls.
On their trip home through the flea market circuit the balls were extremely
popular, much more than the painted, fragile clay figurines had been the
year before. They decided to have the craftspeople that made the chiming
spheres enhance them with overlay designs of nature themes and attach bails
so that they could be worn as pendants. Baby rattles, key chains, bracelets
and earrings soon followed, and The Here After was officially incorporated
in June 1991, dba The Harmony Ball Company. Business was so brisk that the
coffee shop and movie house were left by the wayside. Instead the company's
mission was to find unusual and creative trinkets and crafts from around
the world to be sold in the U.S.
Noel moved from Brooklyn to Columbus in March 1991, and The Harmony Ball Company (HBC) office was set up. By 1992 HBC was a multi-million-dollar business that employed 400 Mexican artisans. The next HBC sensation, which came in 1993, was the Love Letter. These sterling silver cubes with letters and symbols were such a phenomenon that they were copied within a few months. Next came Birthstone Kids, but the same fate befell them. Jewellery was nearly impossible to copyright, so new items were constantly needed. Running a fast-growing business, innovating new products, and producing and marketing them quickly before they could be copied proved extremely challenging. At its height HBC offered over 3,000 jewellery items with pieces made throughout the U.S., Mexico, Thailand, Italy, and Germany. When Noel and Lisa met Martin in 1994, they were not yet 30 years old but felt almost like seasoned pros.
Today, the stateside headquarters of Harmony Kingdom is located in a turn-of-the-century warehouse listed on the National Historic Register in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
Peter Calvesbert As master carver, Peter is the man responsible for the humorous Treasure Jest™ series. His works have captured the attention of collectors worldwide, although interestingly he has had no formal arts training.
Born in 1960 in Hereford, England, he first picked up a piece of modeling clay at the age of three but didn't pursue sculpting for nearly thirty years. He worked odd jobs during his youth, and when he fell short of money he painted china, a craft he had acquired when he worked as a ceramic artist at Boehms of Malvern.
In 1990 Peter experienced a stroke of good fortune. By that time Martin had realised he needed to hire a master carver for Antiquark and was interviewing for the position. Michael Tandy, Peter's friend, was one of the candidates and asked Peter to accompany him on the interview. As his friend was leaving the interview with the promise to carve some samples, Peter whispered to Martin that he thought he could carve a couple too. Michael returned with "The Ram" and what was later known as "Who'd A Thought." Peter brought a series of six ducks, four of which later became part of the Harmony Kingdom "Large Treasure Jest" series.
By
1992 Peter was earning a modest income from his carvings for Antiquark and
from painting china. However, he felt it was time to embark on a "real"
career, so he enrolled in a university journalism course. It is here where
he met his wife Andrea, who was also studying journalism. By 1994 they were
planning their wedding, which took place in September 1995. Many box figurines
from this time are encrypted with wedding references. Both Peter and Andrea
love wildlife, so their honeymoon was spent on a South African safari, which
also figures prominently in some of his pieces. Peter and Andrea live a bucolic life in the English countryside. They share their home with "Spike" the cockatiel, Peter's beloved dog Murphy, and a small ginger coloured cat named "LG" for Little Ginger, whose "pet" name is "Algy." Andrea is a great sport in letting Peter reveal in his art private details of their lives together and that of Peter's former girlfriends. One notable girlfriend that is referenced in a number of pieces is Zoe Bain, whom Peter met while taking a computer course at a London university nearly twenty years ago.
Thank goodness Peter gave up his journalistic aspirations. He works full-time as Harmony Kingdom's most prolific and well-recognised master carver. We can still enjoy his writings in the quarterly column "Planet Calvesbert" in Harmony Kingdom's newsletter "The Queen's Courier."
David Lawrence Collectors of Harmony Kingdom were introduced to David Lawrence's work with "Chatelaine," the first holiday angel released in 1995, followed by the 1996 release of the Harmony Circus™. Harmony Circus box figurines reflected his very English and very eccentric sense of humour. It would be hard to say which of his circus characters proved the most extraordinary. Was it the multirubberlimbed Il Bendi, the intrepid Henry the Human Cannonball or the silver-throated sword-swallower Vlad the Impaler?
David's next range, Angelique™, was on a completely different tack. The childlike angels that comprise Angelique were a reflection of the circumstances in which the artist found himself: his daughter Rose and her various friends from around the village filled his house with laughter and song and served as inspiration and models. His most recent creations are larger format animal box figurines from the Zookeepers Series, complete with hidden messages both inside and out.
David
has always enjoyed the challenge of working in different fields and different
media, the result of a "restless imagination" he says. Initially he was
a painter in photo-realistic style and a medical illustrator. A good technical
grounding enabled him to graduate to the hothouse of the advertising industry
of West End London in the eighties. The desire to work at something more lasting and meaningful led David to Harmony Kingdom and to the small village in Wessex where he lives with his wife and two daughters in a home that dates back to 1690. He loves the solitude of village life and takes great pride in its history. In addition to family and work, he has two other passions. He can be seen throughout the countryside performing with the Taunton Deane Morris Men, a troupe which practices the ancient English dance form known as Morris Dancing. His second passion is for his neighbourhood pub, which is as much a way of life in his village as the daily milk delivery.
Monique Baldwin One of the more unique aspects of Martin Perry Studios is that it is comprised of both accomplished artists as well as younger, aspiring ones. Monique falls into the second category and is truly a product of Martin‘s guidance.
Monique was born in Dominica but has lived in Stroud most of her life. She studied art and design at Stroud College for two years before attending Carmarthen College in Wales where she pursued an HND in surface design, jewelry design, ceramics, and stained glass. After graduation, with college loans to repay, she found work in the finishing department at Antiquark. After a year and nearly debt free, she decided "it was time to start looking for a job where my four years of art school could be utilized." Fortuitously, Martin was looking for someone to help in the new research and development department and learned that Monique had a strong arts background.
For
six months she experimented with color and mixing stain, and she worked
in every department so she could get a thorough understanding of the production
process. She then began to re-design masters, which involved sanding areas
that had chipped in the machine or adding to parts that were too thin, before
production began. From this exercise, Martin realized that Monique was quite
adept at carving, so he had her sculpt many of the interior scenes in Harmony
Garden Chapter II, as well as the "Rose Bud" which was the first piece she
carved entirely. From that time forward, she has carved all of the open
edition pieces from the Harmony Garden collection.
I asked Monique if she had a garden of her own. She has recently moved into a new home and has begun to create a living Harmony Garden, planting those flowers that she sculpts. Her first trip to the U.S. and first public Harmony Kingdom appearance was in June 1999 at the International Collectible Exposition in Rosemont, Illinois. The number of people that enjoy her work overwhelmed her. Little did she know how delighted we are by the fruits (and flowers) of her labor.
Harmony Kingdom - Treasure Jest, Pot Belly's, Jardina, Luminiart by Harmony Ball Company
