Among the most celebrated objects of the American Art Deco period, the Manhattan cocktail ensemble was designed by Norman Bel Geddes for Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, Rome, New York, and first 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 (1893–1958) was the defining figure of American industrial design in the interwar years. In 1927, he became the first to open a dedicated industrial design studio in the United States, and he became the foremost exponent of the Streamline Moderne aesthetic and is perhaps best remembered for the Futurama installation at the 1939 New York World's Fair — the fair's most visited exhibit, drawing over ten million visitors.
The Manhattan set was the signature piece of a collaboration between Revere and Norman Bel Geddes & Co. that began in late 1933, when Revere — seeking new markets during the Depression — engaged Bel Geddes to anchor their inaugural giftware line. The 1935 catalog described the Manhattan tray as conveying "distinguished simplicity… lending character to either formal or informal entertaining." The design is an overt homage to the New York skyline: a tall cylindrical shaker rising above four stemmed cups on a stepped, fluted tray that functions as a kind of urban plaza in miniature. The shaker offered here is the second, larger "party-size" version, produced c. 1939–41.
The set is complete — shaker, four stemmed cups, two candleholders, and stepped tray — and retains its original fitted boxes for the tray and candleholders, an exceptional survival in this condition.
Marks: Stamped Revere / Rome / N.Y. to the underside of the tray; original box printed Handicraft by Revere / Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, Rome Manufacturing Company Division, Rome, New York / Founded by Paul Revere in 1801.
Dimensions: Tray: 14” width x 11”depth. Shaker height: 13”
LITERATURE
Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 2005.50.1-8
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Stephen Visakay, Vintage Bar Ware, 1997.
Revere Copper and Brass, gift catalog, 1935
Among the most celebrated objects of the American Art Deco period, the Manhattan cocktail ensemble was designed by Norman Bel Geddes for Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, Rome, New York, and first 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 (1893–1958) was the defining figure of American industrial design in the interwar years. In 1927, he became the first to open a dedicated industrial design studio in the United States, and he became the foremost exponent of the Streamline Moderne aesthetic and is perhaps best remembered for the Futurama installation at the 1939 New York World's Fair — the fair's most visited exhibit, drawing over ten million visitors.
The Manhattan set was the signature piece of a collaboration between Revere and Norman Bel Geddes & Co. that began in late 1933, when Revere — seeking new markets during the Depression — engaged Bel Geddes to anchor their inaugural giftware line. The 1935 catalog described the Manhattan tray as conveying "distinguished simplicity… lending character to either formal or informal entertaining." The design is an overt homage to the New York skyline: a tall cylindrical shaker rising above four stemmed cups on a stepped, fluted tray that functions as a kind of urban plaza in miniature. The shaker offered here is the second, larger "party-size" version, produced c. 1939–41.
The set is complete — shaker, four stemmed cups, two candleholders, and stepped tray — and retains its original fitted boxes for the tray and candleholders, an exceptional survival in this condition.
Marks: Stamped Revere / Rome / N.Y. to the underside of the tray; original box printed Handicraft by Revere / Revere Copper and Brass Incorporated, Rome Manufacturing Company Division, Rome, New York / Founded by Paul Revere in 1801.
Dimensions: Tray: 14” width x 11”depth. Shaker height: 13”
LITERATURE
Art Institute of Chicago, accession no. 2005.50.1-8
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Stephen Visakay, Vintage Bar Ware, 1997.
Revere Copper and Brass, gift catalog, 1935
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