During the late 1920s many American manufacturers began to explore modernist styles. One of these was the California firm Porter Blanchard, with whom KEM Weber collaborated. The resulting objects in pewter are some of the most prized works by the iconic American designer. The present lot is one of two known examples of this rare model; the other was sold at Sotheby's New York in June 2010. Shortly after its conception the centerpiece was illustrated in The Studio, where it is shown on a dining suite by Grand Rapids Furniture Company. The consecutive parallel lines and mechanical aspect of the form are typical motifs used by progressive American designers of the interwar years, representative of the popular streamlined aesthetic of “Machine Age" modernism. The inverted ziggurat form of the base relates to a flower bowl attributed to Weber and dated circa 1930 in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery (illustrated John Stuart Gordon, A Modern World: American Design from the Yale University Art Gallery, 1920-1950, New Haven, 2011, p. 174, cat. no. 113).