Gio Ponti - Design London Wednesday, April 26, 2023 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Private collection, San Francisco
    Thence by descent to the present owner

  • Literature

    'Nice Weather for Parties', Vogue, 15 April, 1958, pp. 118-19
    Jewel Stern, Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design, exh. cat., Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, 2005, p. 245 for a drawing and an advertisement
    William P. Hood and Jewel Stern, 'The Diamond Pattern by Reed & Barton', Silver Magazine, May-June 2007, cover, pp. 2, 14, 17-18, 20-22
    Sophie Bouilhet-Dumas, Dominique Forest, and Salvatore Lictira, eds., Gio Ponti: Archi-designer, Paris, 2018, p. 136

  • Artist Biography

    Gio Ponti

    Italian • 1891 - 1979

    Among the most prolific talents to grace twentieth-century design, Gio Ponti defied categorization. Though trained as an architect, he made major contributions to the decorative arts, designing in such disparate materials as ceramics, glass, wood and metal. A gale force of interdisciplinary creativity, Ponti embraced new materials like plastic and aluminum but employed traditional materials such as marble and wood in original, unconventional ways.

    In the industrial realm, he designed buildings, cars, machinery and appliances — notably, the La Cornuta espresso machine for La Pavoni — and founded the ADI (Industrial Designer Association). Among the most special works by Gio Ponti are those that he made in collaboration with master craftsmen such as the cabinetmaker Giordano Chiesa, the illustrator Piero Fornasetti and the enamellist Paolo de Poli.

    View More Works

105

'Diamond' flatware service for 10

circa 1958
Precious metal, stainless steel.
Largest utensil: 27 cm (10 5/8 in.) long
Manufactured by Reed & Barton, Taunton, Massachusetts. Reverse of each solid-handled piece impressed Reed & Barton/STERLING. Blades of each hollow-handled piece impressed REED & BARTON/MIRRORSTELE/STERLING HANDLE. Comprising 10 dinner forks, 11 dinner knives, 10 dessert forks, 12 dessert spoons, 10 butter knives, 10 teaspoons, 1 serving spoon, 1 cake server (67).

Estimate
£5,000 - 7,000 

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
+44 20 7901 7944
Antonia.King@phillips.com

Design

London Auction 26 April 2023