The Manhattan cocktail ensemble, designed by Norman Bel Geddes for Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated of Rome, New York, and introduced in the company's 1935 gift catalog. Examples are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Bel Geddes (1893 to 1958) was the defining figure of American industrial design in the interwar years, among the first to open a dedicated industrial design studio in the United States in 1927, and best remembered for the Futurama installation at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Manhattan set anchored the collaboration between Revere and Norman Bel Geddes and Company that began in late 1933, when Revere, seeking new markets during the Depression, engaged Bel Geddes to design its inaugural giftware line. The design pays open homage to the New York skyline, a tall cylindrical shaker rising above stemmed cups on a stepped, fluted tray, a plaza in miniature, and the 1935 catalog praised the tray's "distinguished simplicity." The shaker offered here is the second, larger party-size version, produced circa 1939 to 1941.
The set is complete with shaker, four stemmed cups, two candleholders, and stepped tray, and retains the original fitted boxes for the tray and candleholders, an exceptional survival. The tray is stamped "Revere, Rome, N.Y." on the underside, and the boxes are printed "Handicraft by Revere, Rome Manufacturing Company Division”. The tray measures 14 inches wide by 11 inches deep, and the shaker 13 inches high.
Literature: Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 2005.50.1-8; Stephen Visakay, Vintage Bar Ware, 1997; Revere Copper and Brass gift catalog, 1935.
The Manhattan cocktail ensemble, designed by Norman Bel Geddes for Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated of Rome, New York, and introduced in the company's 1935 gift catalog. Examples are held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Bel Geddes (1893 to 1958) was the defining figure of American industrial design in the interwar years, among the first to open a dedicated industrial design studio in the United States in 1927, and best remembered for the Futurama installation at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The Manhattan set anchored the collaboration between Revere and Norman Bel Geddes and Company that began in late 1933, when Revere, seeking new markets during the Depression, engaged Bel Geddes to design its inaugural giftware line. The design pays open homage to the New York skyline, a tall cylindrical shaker rising above stemmed cups on a stepped, fluted tray, a plaza in miniature, and the 1935 catalog praised the tray's "distinguished simplicity." The shaker offered here is the second, larger party-size version, produced circa 1939 to 1941.
The set is complete with shaker, four stemmed cups, two candleholders, and stepped tray, and retains the original fitted boxes for the tray and candleholders, an exceptional survival. The tray is stamped "Revere, Rome, N.Y." on the underside, and the boxes are printed "Handicraft by Revere, Rome Manufacturing Company Division”. The tray measures 14 inches wide by 11 inches deep, and the shaker 13 inches high.
Literature: Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 2005.50.1-8; Stephen Visakay, Vintage Bar Ware, 1997; Revere Copper and Brass gift catalog, 1935.
Image 1 of 4
Image 2 of 4
Image 3 of 4
Image 4 of 4
