Does the frozen scenery on this Reed & Barton beverage set make you feel like the ice water is really icy?   More refreshing? Are you transported to frostier climes in faraway places? Icebergs “startle, frighten, awe; they astonish, excite, amuse, delight and fascinate”[1].   Depending on where you live, icebergs and polar bears can be as...

To celebrate the opening of Nature by Design: Botanical Expressions (December 7, 2019-January 10, 2021), Object of the Day this week will feature objects from the exhibition. Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) is often described as the first independent industrial designer because of his belief in machine production, his ability to create beautiful and functional objects in...

It is always surprising to read about famous designers or manufacturers who were hesitant about the career paths that turned them into household names. Danish silversmith Georg Jensen (1866-1935) was one such person. Initially, he had hopes of becoming a sculptor, but focused on silversmithing as this proved to be a more lucrative line of...

In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Nearing the end of winter, Birds in Spring may be wishful thinking on my part. This charming design of birds, presumably martins, flying around a bird house is rendered in a minimal fashion. Printed on a silvered...

To celebrate the opening of Iridescence, on view through March 24, 2019, Object of the Day this week will feature iridescent objects in the collection. This stunningly crafted fruit knife combines exquisite artistry and strong Japanese influence to elevate the everyday dining experience into an art form. As part of a substantial dessert service of...

Producers and designers of contemporary wallpaper are constantly pushing the boundaries of the medium, creating forms beyond what is generally accepted or imagined when one envisions wallpaper. For LED Wallpaper the combined efforts of Ingo Maurer and Architects Paper produced a method of design that had not been integrated into wallpaper up until this point....

In 1941, famed French Art Deco silversmith Jean Puiforcat (1897-1945) wrote news from Mexico to his daughter, Claude, in Paris: “The country is truly marvelous; this captivating natural landscape accentuated by a civilization that goes back to the mist of time.”[1] Escaping German-held France, Puiforcat, soon joined by his family, fled to Mexico, establishing a...

Michael Izrael Galmer was born in 1947 in the former Soviet Union, living there through much of the Cold War. Despite the difficulty of these years, Galmer attended Moscow University, earning a Ph.D. in physics while pursuing his interests in drawing, painting and sculpture, looking to nature for inspiration. As a student, he did not...

René Lalique was one of the most versatile jewelry artists working in the twentieth century, in that he was equally successful in two periods of design history. Lalique created both luxurious one-off pieces for fashionable ladies during the art nouveau period and also successfully created mass-produced glass pieces in the style moderne. Lauded during the...

Founded by Clara Barck Welles in 1900, the Kalo Shop was one of the most successful workshops of the Arts and Crafts movement. The name “Kalo” derives from the Greek word for beauty and the motto of the Kalo Shop was “Beautiful, Useful, and Enduring.”[1] The output of the Kalo Shop lived up to this...

Now on view in The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s, this vase by Dagobert Peche is an explosion of movement and life.

Fainting was a common occurrence among nineteenth-century women who tight-laced their corsets, thus restricting both deep breathing and the sufficient consumption of food. Victorian publications warned that fainting could also be induced by sudden and violent emotions, powerful odors and “derangement of the bowels” (a wonderful phrase). Recovery was accelerated by lying horizontally while sprinkling...

This week’s entries are dedicated to objects featured in the exhibition Thom Browne Selects, currently on view at Cooper Hewitt through October 23, 2016. Today, it is not unfamiliar to feel a constant oscillation between the eastern and western ideas of culture with the world’s expedited methods of communication, but this was occurring at a...

This table clock, designed by Swedish goldsmith, Baron Erik Fleming, truly captures the spirit and wonder of travel in its depiction of a globe. Spinning on its axis hour by hour, this clock lets the viewer explore the many vast places in the world, from the massive continents of the Americas, to the tiny islands...

Born in the Bronx, Phyllis Bowdwin is an activist, writer, educator, mixed-media artist, and designer. Inspired by her African ancestry, Bowdwin made this brooch that depicts in diagrammatic form the hull of a slave ship and the arrangement of its tightly packed human cargo during the Middle Passage. In this version, five heads of African...