Modernism’s Silver Lining

By: Janet Zapata

October 2006

Remember your grandmother’s candy dish with the giraffes and those red stones? Well, get it out of the attic. If it was made by Erik Magnussen for Gorham Manufacturing Co., it could be worth more than you think. Savvy collectors have begun snapping up these dusty silver heirlooms because beneath decades of tarnish lie sterling icons of design that can be worth small fortunes.

Helping polish up vintage silver’s image is the exhibition “Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design,” which can be seen at the Dallas Museum of Art through September 24. As

“Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design” Wolfsonian-Florida International University in Miami Beach, Nov. 17–March 25. Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tenn., April 22–July 15.

Kevin Tierney, senior vice president of silver at Sotheby’s, notes, “There are still opportunities for the buyer with an eye.” Both the exhibition and its book of the same title have brought to light the transformation of silver-making and marketing silver from 1925 to 2000. During this 75-year period, silver design followed two very different paths: one, a conservative course catering to a wider audience; the other, forging new ground, endeavoring to stay current with modern styles with varying degrees of success. It is the fruits of this latter design path that have become today’s coveted collectibles.

Some of the best futuristic silver designs were created in the latter half of the 1920s, when many prominent companies offered services with a modern flair. Magnussen at Gorham created Cubic, a coffee set with a surface broken into angular planes. Kevin W. Tucker, the Margot B. Perot Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art and project director and co-curator of the exhibition, says that this set is “very much of the moment it was made and an icon of the period.”

Among all silver collectibles, silver-plate hollowware set the standard for innovative,

Donald Colflesh, tea and coffee service, 1970, silver and ebony.

contemporary style. “It was about design and not about whether it was made of sterling or silver plate,” says Daniel Morris, cofounder of New York’s Historical Design gallery. Louis M. Rice’s
Skyscraper tea set for Apollo Studios, a division of Bernard Rice’s Sons, is based on the setback outline of Manhattan’s tall buildings. International’s Wilcox Silver Plate division was forward thinking when staff designer Jean G. Theobald and product stylist Virginia Hamill conceived new fitted tea services, known as Diamant.

It would take Tiffany & Co. until the 1930s to catch up to this trend. In 1935, they created a fitted coffee set, perhaps inspired by Theobald’s Diamant. When it came up for auction at Christie’s in May 2002, it sold for $33,460. The record for a piece of modernist American silver was set at Christie’s in January of that year: A jewelry casket, designed by Arthur Barney for Tiffany & Co.’s display at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, sold for $138,000.

In the late 1920s, silver manufacturers turned to plastics for color accents, such as the handle of a pitcher from the Sheets-Rockford Co.’s Art Moderne line. In 1956, Lunt Silversmiths introduced Contrast, with black nylon handles, designed by Nord Bowlen, to compete with stainless-steel cutlery. However, it quickly lost market share to the latter, which could be washed in the new automated dishwashers.

Yet one period’s avant-garde may prove itself a favorite many decades later. Contrast is currently enjoying a healthy revival. “A piece that sold for $80 a few years ago now retails for $200,” notes Gary Niederkorn of Niederkorn Antique Silver in Philadelphia.

Selected hollowware also has seen similar price increases. Marian Anderson Noyes’ serpentine silver candlesticks with black plastic tips for Towle Silversmiths formerly sold for $200 to $225 a pair. According to Stan Szaro of Lauren-Stanley, New York, a pair now sells for $625.
A favorite flatware set among silver connoisseurs is Vision, designed by Ronald Hayes Pearson for International Silver Co. in 1961. Twentieth-century American silver historian Jewel Stern, a guest curator and the author of the show’s companion book, writes, “Vision was the most radical, innovative production-line sterling pattern offered by a major manufacturer during the century.”

Nevertheless, when a 72-piece service came up at Sotheby’s in January 2006, it sold for $3,000, or $41.66 each, in contrast to a 20-piece set of Angela Cummings’ Shell, a pattern with seashell images that sold on eBay in May 2006 for $2,202 or $110.10 per piece. Except for a few dealers and astute collectors, the public still seems to prefer recognizable motifs.

The end of the century saw the introduction of silver designed by architects. In 1983, Alessi Officina commissioned 11 postmodern tea and coffee services—four of them by Americans,

Tiffany & Co., New York, three-piece demitasse service with tray, c. 1935, silver, $33,460.

including Michael Graves. Their designs, quite different from those of product designers, are derived from simple-line, large-form perspectives such as Graves’ set, with each piece in the shape of a cube with reeding that extends to the feet. New York dealer Greg Nanamura sees the current interest in silver commissioned by architects from the design studio of Swid Powell as “hot.” A silver-plated salad set by Richard Meier, made and marketed by Reed & Barton, now sells for $475. From an unrelated, yet compatible perspective, silversmith Ubaldo Vitali was commissioned by Movado to create silverware to complement its line of objects that bridged function and aesthetics, including a tea and coffee set formed of conical shapes with handles and finials provided by glassmaker Leonard DiNardo.

The rules for collectible modernist silver are simple: sharp lines, round forms, bold looks. In short, designs that were undesirable or avant-garde yesterday, and therefore made in small quantities, are today enjoying unprecedented popularity, with prices soaring accordingly. In showcasing yesterday’s best silver designs, “Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design” offers an invaluable guide to sound collecting.

Janet Zapata is a decorative arts consultant, specializing in American jewelry and silver. She is the author of several books, including The Jewelry and Enamels of Louis Comfort Tiffany, The Art of Zadora: America’s Fabergé, The Jeweled Menagerie with Suzanne Tennenbaum and Seaman Schepps: A Century of New York Design with Amanda Vaill.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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►Alan Rosenberg Works of Art
New York
212.989.4061

►Beverly Bremer Silver Shop
Atlanta
800.270.4009

►Greg Nanamura
New York
917.446-4170

►Gus Kollitus
New York
212.736.0947

►Historical Design
New York
212.593.4528

►Lauren-Stanley
New York
212.888.6732

►M.S. Rau Antiques
New Orleans
800.544.9440

►Mark McDonald
Hudson, N.Y.
518.828.6320

►Niederkorn Silver
Philadelphia
215.567.2606

►Spencer Marks
East Walpole, Mass.
508.668.8969