A cocktail shaker of the highest design pedigree, this example was created by Keith Murray for Mappin & Webb — one of the defining collaborations of British Art Deco design. Murray, the New Zealand-born architect turned industrial designer, brought an architect's rigorous sense of form to everything he produced: clean geometry, precisely articulated stepped profiles, and a complete rejection of ornamental superfluity. All of those qualities are fully present here.
The shaker is of tapering cylindrical form, the body rising from a stepped and reeded base to a two-part top section with a domed, reeded cap — the horizontal banding at top and bottom providing the restrained architectural rhythm that is the hallmark of Murray's work for both Mappin & Webb and Wedgwood. In silver plate, the surface is brilliantly polished and unadorned save for the engraved decoration, which is itself a model of graphic clarity.
The body carries engraved decoration on two registers. A frieze of stylized cocktail bar imagery — palm trees, figures, and bar motifs rendered in a witty, spare line — encircles the upper shoulder. Below, six named cocktail recipes are set out with characteristic precision: No. 1 Bronx, No. 2 Clover Club, No. 3 Dry Martini, No. 4 Manhattan Dry, No. 5 Side Car, and No. 6 Charley Horse, each with its proportions engraved directly on the body — Dry Gin, Italian Vermouth, French Vermouth, juices and grenadine as required. The numbering system and engraved recipe format place this firmly in the tradition of the great British recipe shakers of the interwar period, of which the Murray/Mappin & Webb examples are the most architecturally distinguished.
Mappin & Webb, goldsmiths and silversmiths to the British Royal Family, produced Murray's designs to the highest standard of the silversmithing trade. Examples of this model appear in major collections of British decorative arts.
MAKER: Mappin & Webb, London; designed by Keith Murray DATE: c. 1930–1939 MATERIALS: Silver plate RECIPES ENGRAVED: No. 1 Bronx · No. 2 Clover Club · No. 3 Dry Martini · No. 4 Manhattan Dry · No. 5 Side Car · No. 6 Charley Horse
A cocktail shaker of the highest design pedigree, this example was created by Keith Murray for Mappin & Webb — one of the defining collaborations of British Art Deco design. Murray, the New Zealand-born architect turned industrial designer, brought an architect's rigorous sense of form to everything he produced: clean geometry, precisely articulated stepped profiles, and a complete rejection of ornamental superfluity. All of those qualities are fully present here.
The shaker is of tapering cylindrical form, the body rising from a stepped and reeded base to a two-part top section with a domed, reeded cap — the horizontal banding at top and bottom providing the restrained architectural rhythm that is the hallmark of Murray's work for both Mappin & Webb and Wedgwood. In silver plate, the surface is brilliantly polished and unadorned save for the engraved decoration, which is itself a model of graphic clarity.
The body carries engraved decoration on two registers. A frieze of stylized cocktail bar imagery — palm trees, figures, and bar motifs rendered in a witty, spare line — encircles the upper shoulder. Below, six named cocktail recipes are set out with characteristic precision: No. 1 Bronx, No. 2 Clover Club, No. 3 Dry Martini, No. 4 Manhattan Dry, No. 5 Side Car, and No. 6 Charley Horse, each with its proportions engraved directly on the body — Dry Gin, Italian Vermouth, French Vermouth, juices and grenadine as required. The numbering system and engraved recipe format place this firmly in the tradition of the great British recipe shakers of the interwar period, of which the Murray/Mappin & Webb examples are the most architecturally distinguished.
Mappin & Webb, goldsmiths and silversmiths to the British Royal Family, produced Murray's designs to the highest standard of the silversmithing trade. Examples of this model appear in major collections of British decorative arts.
MAKER: Mappin & Webb, London; designed by Keith Murray DATE: c. 1930–1939 MATERIALS: Silver plate RECIPES ENGRAVED: No. 1 Bronx · No. 2 Clover Club · No. 3 Dry Martini · No. 4 Manhattan Dry · No. 5 Side Car · No. 6 Charley Horse
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